HSBC
HSBC has the widest network of any foreign bank in China by some distance:178 outlets in 57 cities. That visibility clearly helps in China and beyond.
Of all banks in China, foreign and local, HSBC China, led by David Liao was second only to the state’s China Merchants Bank in loan syndications, booking $4 billion-worth of deals in 2016. In debt capital markets, it narrowly trails only the state’s mighty Bank of China, tallying $12.4 billion-worth of business last year.
It’s also making friends at the central People’s Bank by leading the internationalization and acceptance of the renminbi, being selected in the first batch of preferred market-makers for direct onshore trading against a basket of currencies in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. HSBC China now ranks first among foreign banks for renminbi payment volume through China’s cross-border interbank payment system.
It is unsurprising then that HSBC China is now the preferred foreign bank for so-called panda bonds, the renminbi-denominated bonds sold by foreign issuers to mainland Chinese investors, notably the Rmb3 billion ($440 million) deal it arranged in August with the Bank of China for the Polish government, the first-ever European sovereign issuer to offer renminbi bonds in China’s domestic capital markets.
HSBC is also the favoured entry point to China for international central banks, sovereign funds and multilaterals investing in China. HSBC was the only foreign bank to participate in an August bond deal for the World Bank, a deal that marked the renminbi’s entry to the IMF’s elite special drawing rights currency basket, another landmark in China’s integration into the international financial system.
In the meantime, the market continues to wait with bated breath for news that its majority-owned securities joint venture in the Pearl River Delta has received official approval – it is slated to be the first of its kind in China.
HSBC is the international bank to catch in the PRC.