DBS CEO upbeat on foreign bank access expansion

China has shown a strong desire to further open up and the intent of policy improvement is expected to follow through in execution, said Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS Group.

"The most important thing about President Xi Jinping's speech (in Boao this month) is the statement of intent. It is consistent with his speech in Davos last year, but it indicates a strong desire to continue to open on several fronts," said Gupta on the sidelines of the DBS Asian Insights Conference China 2018 in Shanghai on Thursday.

He was impressed with the quick follow-up from China's central bank Governor Yi Gang, who, in his speech, provided specific details for the financial services sector.

"The idea that foreign banks can have not only no ownership caps, but, more importantly, the freedom to open branches and subsidiaries nationwide without having to get specific approval, is helpful. It allows us to be a little more thoughtful about our distribution requirements," he said.

"The ability to be able to own a majority of a securities company and then within three years, to be able to get up to a 100 percent ownership, is helpful because that obviously allows us to think differently about establishing securities vehicles within the country," he added.

What is even more encouraging than market access is the statement by Yi saying that by the second half of this year, the range of activities permitted to foreign banks will be substantially increased.

"In the past, even though we had a full banking license, there were always limitations and restrictions on what we were really allowed to do. Therefore, opening up the range of what a bank can do will have a big impact (on) the many businesses that we would like to do at scale and speed in China, but in the past it was not possible. I think this might be a game changer," Gupta said.

"The real issue is that you have to make sure that the intent of these policy changes actually follows through in execution across provinces and across different agencies," he stressed. "In the past, it has often been the case that while the policy intent is positive, by the time you get to execution across different regulators and different provinces, you start running into road blocks. It is my hope and belief that this time around you will see the execution trickle through to the levels that really matter."

He noted that there are specific areas where DBS, a Singapore-based financial services group, enjoys expertise it can bring to China's domestic market. These areas include the TMT and commodities and trading sectors.

Benefiting from the advantage of Singapore as an important financing center, DBS uses its local knowledge of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its footprint in its member countries to help Chinese companies in terms of partner selection and in terms of negotiating local rules and local regulatory environments.

Last year, the deal value of Chinese mergers and acquisitions in ASEAN surged to $34.1 billion, rising by 268 percent year-on-year and representing 77 percent of the total value of Chinese M&As in Asia, according to a recent EY report.