Dutch lender ABN AMRO said on May 07 that it aims to serve more Chinese firms as they expand further overseas, thereby raising the bank's profile in the world's fourth-largest economy. ABN AMRO is currently a comparatively modest player in China compared with other international lenders.
But Chinese companies' aggressive forays abroad provide an ideal opportunity for the lender to take advantage of its strong presence in the global market, said Choo Hak Lee, managing director and Asia head of ABN AMRO's fixed income capital markets department.
The Chinese government in recent years has made it easier for domestic companies to go outside the country to seek energy and resources to fuel its rapid economic growth.
But China's big state banks and domestic financial institutions, though dominating the home market, have very little international experience.
"Chinese companies are looking for acquisitions overseas, and that's a big part of our business. Given our global reach and product capability, ABN AMRO is well-positioned to service the outbound client requirements," he said.
Providing advisory and financing services for Chinese firms' international expansion into sectors such as oil and gas is one of its focuses, he added.
Within China, ABN AMRO has been offering some local currency services, and has received government approval to prepare for local incorporation, which will enable it to offer a full range of such operations. It is still waiting for the final go-ahead to begin these services.
China fully opened its door to foreign banks in December last year in line with the commitments it made when joining the World Trade Organisation.
But foreign lenders must first get locally incorporated, which subjects them to tougher capital and regulatory standards, before they can offer similar services to the country's domestic banks.
So far China's banking regulator has approved four foreign banks including Citigroup Inc and Standard Chartered to become local entities.
Lee said ABN AMRO is very keen to develop its local currency yuan capabilities and wants to expand further into a range of business lines such as credit card, wealth management, private banking and retail operations.
Talking on the sidelines of the 40th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Lee said the ADB urgently needs to offer technical assistance to individual nations around the region to improve the market basics.
Each government should also try to make it easier for foreign investors to come in, to encourage more bond issuers, enable more hedging mechanisms and foster more sustainable yield curves, he added. Once the market is more developed and transparent with more investors and issuers taking part, the markets will be better prepared for cross-market development and ultimately integration where possible, Lee said. He added that Beijing's move earlier this year to allow domestic entities to issue yuan bonds in Hong Kong was a practical move for cross-bond market development.
Referring to the bidding war for ABN AMRO between banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays, Lee said it would not impact the bank's Asian operations as whoever wins will still need the lender's strong presence in the region.