Bank doubles assets with overseas participation
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-01-04 15:47

The Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. based in this capital city of east China's Fujian Province has more than doubled its gross assets after it drew overseas strategic investors two years ago.

One of the 10 major national joint-stock commercial banks in China, the Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. had 470 billion yuan (57.95 billion U.S. dollars) in gross assets at the end of last year, up from 230 billion yuan (28.36 U.S. dollars) in late 2003.

Formerly named the Fujian Industrial Bank founded in 1998, the bank reported outstanding deposits of 350 billion yuan (43.16 billion U.S. dollars) and outstanding loans of 243 billion yuan (29.96 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2005.

In December 2003, the Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. signed equity transfer accord with Hang Seng Bank of Hong Kong, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), involving up to some 2.697 billion yuan (332.9 million U.S. dollars) of equities.

Industry insiders said the bank has improved corporate governance with the technical support of the overseas strategic investors over the past two years.

The bank has recently become one of China's first group of market makers on the interbank foreign exchange swap market.