SHANGHAI: DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia's largest bank, is looking to tap China's renminbi wealth management market after local incorporation, the Singapore-based bank said.

"With the setting up of the local subsidiary, and in time to come, we hope to provide the full suite of wealth management services to our customers in Hong Kong and Singapore, and to local and foreign residents on the mainland," DBS spokeswoman Eunice Woo said.

DBS and seven other financial institutions, including the Hong Kong-based Hang Seng Bank and Singapore's Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp, are waiting for approval from the Chinese banking authorities for local incorporation. The authorities have granted approval to the first batch of four overseas banks HSBC, Citigroup, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia.

Local incorporation means the removal of regulatory barriers for foreign lenders to access the mainland's $2 trillion household savings. It also means being put on an equal footing with domestic banks in competing for the high-end consumer banking business, in particular the wealth management sector.

"China is an integral part of our blueprint to build DBS into a premier bank in Asia," Woo told China Daily. "We take a long-term view of our investments in China and will explore any opportunities which will help us to grow our business in China."

The largest bank in Singapore by assets and a major bank in Hong Kong, DBS serves corporate, institutional and retail customers through its operations on the mainland, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines apart from the anchor markets of its home country and Hong Kong.

On the mainland, the lender has been providing banking and financial services to corporate and institutional customers since its first Shanghai branch was set up in 1995.

DBS set up its flagship consumer banking outlet in Shanghai. "The Shanghai Luwan sub-branch offers customers a wide range of services in renminbi and foreign currencies, including deposit, mortgage, exchange and remittance services," Woo said.

In December, DBS received the go-ahead from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to offer local currency time deposits of at least 1 million yuan to local residents.

The bank now owns 10 branches, sub-branches and representative offices on the mainland, including those owned by DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited.

(China Daily 04/06/2007 page13)

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