(13 June 2007 – China) Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has said it plans to open thousands of wealth management centres in China over the next few years.ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing said the bank, which is China’s largest lender, will look to transform itself into a diversified bank from a plain vanilla one and focus on international business rather than just lending to the domestic sector.
The bank is set to open 1,000 wealth management outlets in 2007 with a further 2,000 to follow over the next two years.
ICBC has been performing poorly on the Hong Kong stock exchange this year.