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Bank of China to set up more US branches

Bank of China to set up more US branches

(27 April 2015 – China)  Bank of China Ltd (BoC) is planning to set up more branches in the United States and sell asset-backed securities as cross-border bilateral investment increases.

Currently BoC has branches in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York and is considering Washington D.C and San Francisco among other locations, according to BoC’s U.S president and chief executive Xu Chen.

He told Bloomberg the expansion plan must first overcome stringent U.S regulations on foreign banks.

“The expansion of U.S. banks in China is much faster than where we are here,” Xu said. “We’d like to do more business beyond commercial banking, but U.S. regulations have limited our development. Expansion of Chinese banks will help expand investment from Chinese companies.”

Xu also said the bank would definitely sell its first ABS product this year with more Chinese investors seeking to hold assets in the U.S.

In 2014 BoC’s investment unit bought an office building in midtown Manhattan for US$600 million (A$776 million).

It plans to take up about 40 to 50 percent of the space and rent out the rest after the deal is completed later this month, according to Xu. With more than 400 employees in the U.S, the bank is also looking for acquisition opportunities, Xu said.

Property-related loans account for about 20 percent of outstanding loans at Bank of China’s New York branch, while its non-performing loan ratio is zero, Xu said.

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