(07 March 2013 – China) In the next three years Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) is expected to open four Chinese offices through its consumer loan unit.The Group wants to focus its capital on China, and already has offices through Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) Consumer Finance’s subsidiaries in Shenyang and Shenzhen, which have 13 branches in both cities.
It expects the number of Chinese outlets to increase to 70 after it opens the additional offices in Tianjin.
SMBC Consumer Finance, which was created after Sumitomo Mitsui made Promise Compact a wholly owned subsidiary in 2012, is expanding in faster-growing foreign markets as deflation crimps borrowing in Japan.
Lending outstanding in China, Hong Kong and Thailand came to US$235 million (A$228 million) as of 31 December, some 3 percent of SMBC Consumer Finance’s total loan amount of US$8 billion.
Sumitomo Mitsui Chief Executive Officer Koichi Miyata recently said that consumer finance is one of the strengths of the Tokyo-based bank, Japan’s second largest by market value.