(27 March 2009 – China) ANZ has announced a number of steps as part of a three year strategy plan for accelerating growth in China.ANZ’s end game in the world’s most populous nation is to become a leading foreign bank in the country.
It plans to execute this strategy through local incorporation, opening additional branches and establishing a new rural bank in western China.
ANZ said that it will apply for regulatory approval in 2009 to establish a 100 percent owned locally incorporated bank subsidiary in China.
This will focus ANZ’s growth on institutional and retail banking by expanding RMB products and other services for mainland Chinese customers.
ANZ will also invest in the expansion of its existing network of two foreign bank branches and a representative office by opening over 20 outlets by 2012 following local incorporation.
Finally, ANZ will complete final regulatory approvals for the establishment of a new rural bank in Liangping, a county near the western city of Chongqing, with a population of more than 900,000 people.
ANZ’s growth strategy in China focuses principally on three high-growth regions – the Yangtze River Delta including Shanghai; the Pearl River Delta including Guangzhou; and the Bohai Bay area including Tianjin and Beijing.
ANZ chief executive officer, Mike Smith, emphasised ANZ’s clear plan for organic growth in China as a major focus given the slowdown in European and US economies and as part of the bank’s goal to become a super regional bank.
ANZ opened its first office in Beijing in 1986 and currently has branches in Beijing and Shanghai, and a representative office in Guangzhou. ANZ also holds a 19.9 percent equity stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank and a 20 percent stake in Bank of Tianjin.