China
LATEST ARTICLES
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A lack of consensus on whether recent under-performance of Asian currencies will impact China’s willingness to let its own currency weaken is leading to disparate views on near-term valuations.
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China’s Project Whitelist, launched at the start of the year, exists to ensure bank funding for property development. But it is there to protect projects, not the developers behind them.
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The Singapore lender is looking to India in search of new business and growth opportunities, its chief executive Piyush Gupta tells Euromoney. Long term, it aims to emulate onshore the country’s best private-sector lenders, HDFC and Kotak Mahindra.
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Previous changes of policy direction have left analysts undecided on whether to attribute recent sharp corrections to the renminbi reference rate to accident or design – or even a combination of the two.
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Encumbered by an impotent fiscal policy and a sluggish stock market, bank lending could be China’s only route to economic recovery.
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Stock market reform has not only revitalized the country's capital markets but has also permeated the real economy. Countries like Korea are quickly following suit. Interestingly, China also seems to be drawing inspiration.
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AsiamoneyThe German lender’s decision to put its chips on southeast Asia is paying off handsomely. Under the leadership of Asia CEO Alexander von zur Mühlen, Deutsche Bank has doubled its capital in Vietnam and Indonesia, with more to come, moved a host of global roles to the region, and has seen Asean eclipse its India and China business in terms of growth and absolute numbers.
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Chinese fintech Ant Group has offered UBS a reported $250 million for Credit Suisse’s China joint venture, outbidding Citadel Securities. It is a timely reminder that despite its current malaise, Asia’s largest economy is still a great long-term place to invest.
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As Beijing works to underpin the equity market, China's fund houses and investment banks are betting on exchange-traded funds as the next big thing. That reflects a market corseted by regulation, where limited options compel a collective herd mentality.
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The Sino-Swiss corridor, set up to encourage Chinese firms to sell global depositary receipts to international investors in the European state, took off fast in 2022. But a host of challenges, from Chinese regulatory concerns to an apparent lack of global interest, has stalled its progress.
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While the world’s biggest markets are still preparing for T+1 settlement, talk is growing of the next step – but going any faster would mean a total reworking of how markets function.
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Many factors explain Japan’s renewed allure to global corporate and financial institutions. Inbound FDI is rising, with local stock prices regularly hitting record highs. Is the economy’s long-awaited renaissance a passing phase or here to stay?
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With its economy embattled and investors fleeing in droves, getting good data on China has never been more important. There are some great analysts and research shops out there. Trouble is, too many China-facing reports suffer from a lack of imagination, groupthink brought on by a fear of irritating Beijing and an over-reliance on state data. That must change.
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Hong Kong-based Chinese investment banks, plagued by the market’s liquidity issues, are looking to China's economic pivot and the renminbi's rise as a fundraising currency to restore their fortunes.
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At the start of 2023, analysts sized China and liked what they saw: an economy reopening after three years of Covid isolation, and ready once again to roar. Nothing of the sort has happened and corporates and institutional investors are now fleeing the market in droves.
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The 34th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll is a Vox Populi poll that identifies the leading brokerages for equities research, sales and trading in Asia. Voters are institutional investors who represent fund management firms, wealth managers, hedge funds, pension funds, and insurance companies that trade in Asia.
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As the Chinese property crisis deepens, a new round of bank-led rescue efforts is on the horizon. While banks must shoulder part of the blame for the crisis, their options for action are limited.
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The travails of Zhongzhi, a key player in China’s poorly regulated $3 trillion shadow financing market, underline why a future crisis in the country is more likely, not less.
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The great and the good have assembled again for the Global Financial Leaders investment summit in Hong Kong.
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While the dollar’s international supremacy is unchallenged for now, the wider landscape is shifting. Companies are raising more funding in renminbi and the currency’s use in international payments and settlements is growing.
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A local asset management company in Liaoning province just bailed out Shengjing Bank – by borrowing the capital it needed from the very same ailing regional lender.
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Global banks spent years trying to make China’s vast market work for them, mostly in vain. Today, though, China’s manufacturers are investing in Europe and the US, and turning to Western lenders for advice. The real China opportunity starts here.
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While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.
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AsiamoneyAfter years of easy Eurobond access and ramped-up Chinese lending, developing economies are now caught between rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions, making debt restructurings more numerous and more complicated. Despite some progress in inter-creditor talks, many debtor nations face an uncertain financial future.
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AsiamoneyDespite its roots in the region, HSBC’s Asian woes have sometimes seemed endemic. It has been overly dependent on Hong Kong and too often caught in Sino-US crosshairs. But under regional co-CEOs Surendra Rosha and David Liao, the lender has regained its confidence, is more regionally diverse than ever, and is busy posting record profits.
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China Merchants Bank
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AsiamoneyOutbound Chinese M&A deal-flow has slowed to a crawl even as inbound activity remains steady. So focus in the region is moving elsewhere: to rising India, steady-and-lucrative Australia and even Japan, where once-bloated conglomerates are streamlining portfolios under intense pressure from activist shareholders.
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How on earth, in this environment, did the bank deliver one of its best-ever quarters in Asia?
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Minmetals International Trust
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Ping An Bank’s transformation over the last five years has given it an undisputed, and long, lead over its peers in digital solutions.
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Bank of China has long been at the forefront of the mainland’s environmental, social and governance ambitions, and its pivotal role in driving the national agenda has gained steam in recent years.
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China Merchants Bank was a clear outlier among its domestic banking peers in the mainland in the past year as its 3.0 business model took shape and produced solid results.
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As the world’s largest bank by assets, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has proven time and again that it is more than capable of navigating any headwinds and challenges that come its way.
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Small and medium-sized enterprises are the mainstay of the Chinese economy, given they account for about 97% of all firms in the country and play a vital role in providing employment opportunities.
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Every bank in China has put corporate social responsibility firmly in its sights, especially over the past few years of pandemic-induced hardships. But the Asiamoney 2022 award for best bank for CSR in the country goes to China Construction Bank for going above and beyond the standard CSR focus.
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HSBC has operated in mainland China since 1865 and is a force to be reckoned with: it is the largest foreign bank in the country, operating in 50 cities, with 150 outlets and over 7,000 employees.
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As a US bank operating in China, Citi has had to balance difficult political relations between the two countries to run its business, navigating trade tensions, a sparring of words between the presidents of these two superpowers, disputes over US audits of Chinese firms, and the near-halt of lucrative China-into-US IPOs.
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The 33rd annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll is a Vox Populi poll that identifies the leading brokerages for equities research, sales and trading in Asia. Voters are institutional investors who represent fund management firms, wealth managers, hedge funds, pension funds, and insurance companies that trade in Asia.
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The combination of China’s crackdown on technology companies, its zero-Covid strategy and its domestic property crisis have buffeted Chinese stocks this year. In order for sentiment to stabilize and for the economy to develop, reforms are needed urgently, putting more emphasis on the private sector and less on GDP growth.
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The outlook for the Chinese real estate sector is bleak, with many more highly indebted companies expected to default on their bonds and loans. If the market is to recover, however, the government will need to ease more restrictions so that firms can access funding again and demand for homes picks up.
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CreditEase Wealth Management
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CreditEase Wealth Management
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Minmetals International Trust
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MUFG Bank is investing in its Greater China business, but will its strategy pay off?
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Two critical developments in China caught the financial markets off guard in 2021.
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The 32nd annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll is a Vox Populi poll that identifies the leading brokerages for equities research, sales and trading in Asia. Voters are institutional investors who represent fund management firms, wealth managers, hedge funds, pension funds, and insurance companies that trade in Asia.
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Many ABS deals in China caught Asiamoney’s attention this year, whether from new issuers and asset classes or because they came with structural innovations.
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Among China’s securities houses, China International Capital Corp impressed Asiamoney the most with its ability to innovate.
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Bank of Communications has led or jointly led many landmark deals in China since it received its first ABS underwriting licence in 2013, and its peers, including foreign firms, have noticed.
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When it comes to international banks operating in China’s securitization market, HSBC is an outlier – not because of its market dominance, but because of its strategy for the asset class.
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Since setting up the ABS department in 2006, Citic Securities has become an indisputable leader in the market.
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Bank of China continues to lead the way in asset-backed securitization in mainland China, making it a clear choice for the best domestic bank for securitization award.
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Citic Securities is the undisputed leader in China’s domestic equities market.
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Citic Securities is the undisputed leader in China’s domestic equities market.
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China Securities Co’s performance in the onshore debt market has gone from strength to strength in the past year. Between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021, Asiamoney’s awards period, CSC claimed a 11.2% market share in bond underwriting and an increase in volume of nearly 23%, making it one of only two securities firms (the other was Citic Securities) to have a share of more than 10%, Wind data shows.
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During Asiamoney’s awards period, Haitong International was busier than all its peers in equity capital markets.
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Citi has long had a reputation of leveraging its unrivalled global network and local market expertise to help clients – no matter where they are based – to find business opportunities, either domestically or internationally.
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China Merchants Bank has once again impressed Asiamoney with its solid performance and growth, making it our choice for best corporate and investment bank in China for 2021.
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China Merchants Bank has once again impressed Asiamoney with its solid performance and growth, making it our choice for best corporate and investment bank in China for 2021.
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One of the big four Chinese state-owned banks, Bank of China has delivered solid results in the onshore debt market, making it the obvious winner of this Asiamoney award.
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In 2020, China International Capital Corp reported an impressive 40% year-on-year jump in investment banking revenues to Rmb5.96 billion ($921 million).
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In 2020, China International Capital Corp reported an impressive 40% year-on-year jump in investment banking revenues to Rmb5.96 billion ($921 million).
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In 2020, China International Capital Corp reported an impressive 40% year-on-year jump in investment banking revenues to Rmb5.96 billion ($921 million).
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The coronavirus pandemic has unearthed a wave of anti-China sentiment across the world, impacting Beijing’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative. Will BRI have a future in a post-pandemic world? A veteran banker at HSBC says yes – but the shape it takes will be vastly different.
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Some of China’s largest state-owned companies have become bond market pariahs after a spate of defaults. This may be just what the country’s markets need.
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Hong Kong must improve its environmental track record and rally the private sector if it is to succeed in its ambition of becoming Asia’s leading centre for green finance.
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China’s crackdown on its biggest technology companies shows the difficulty of balancing growth at all costs at the leading fintech firms with support for state-owned banks.
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A global competition is under way to define the future of money – and the bet is overwhelmingly on China to get there first.
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CreditEase Wealth Management
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China International Capital Corp
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Minmetals International Trust
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China Development Bank’s Rmb10 billion climate bond
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Lianhe Equator Environment Impact Assessment Co
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Research on climate-related information disclosure systems of the banking and insurance industry by CIB Research
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating
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China Merchants Bank
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Hundsun Technologies
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AsiamoneyBritish economist John Maynard Keynes famously wrote more than 80 years ago that people’s behaviour in the financial world is often driven by “animal spirits” that suggest “spontaneous optimism rather than mathematical expectations”. The current craze for special purpose acquisition company (Spac) listings is a good example.
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How should investors incorporate political risk into their view of asset markets?
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Since the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) reformed the country’s benchmark rate system in August 2019, many banks have linked their RMBS trades to the new five-year loan prime rate (LPR). But the underlying mortgages of their RMBS deals were still linked to the old benchmark rate. As a result, linking their RMBS to the new five-year LPR created a rate mismatch between the asset side and the securities side.
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The legal landscape in China around the securitization industry is often hard to navigate. But King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) stands out from its peers. The law firm provided legal services for 254 securitization transactions with a total value of Rmb296.2 billion ($45.4 billion) during the awards period, according to Wind data.
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating (CCXI) dominated ABS ratings during the awards period with a market share of more than 55%, well ahead of its closest competitor, which had a 27% share.
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Citic Securities has an enviable position in China’s ABS market: it boasts a structuring team with the ability to innovate and a large enough client base to test out those new ideas. The firm has notched up several landmark deals, each opening new ground for others to follow.
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Bank of China is the leader in the asset-backed note market. Led by Zhu Dan, vice general manager of the investment banking and asset management department, Bank of China’s team had another good year, taking the top spot in the league table again. The bank underwrote 49 ABNs worth Rmb48.4 billion ($7.4 billion) during the awards period, according to Wind data – up 58.2% from its previous record Rmb30.6 billion of ABNs in the last awards period.
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The Chinese account receivables securitization market has expanded dramatically over the years. In 2017, there were 141 deals with a total value of Rmb158.6 billion ($24.3 billion). By 2019, there were 569 new deals worth Rmb428.5 billion. In the first 11 months of 2020, 739 deals with a total value of Rmb653.1 billion were sold, Wind data shows.
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For the third year in a row, China Merchants Securities (CMS) has stood out from the crowd in China’s residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market.
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CICC underwrote six commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) deals with a total value of Rmb16.52 billion ($2.53 billion) during the awards period, representing a market share of 27.67%. In terms of CMBS issuance deal numbers and volumes, the securities house ranked first and second respectively.
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It was an easy decision to give the auto ABS house award to Citic Securities. The advantage the securities house has in the market is impossible to overlook.
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Competition for this year’s best house for securitization was fierce. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, new issuance in China’s ABS market still rose 16.1% to Rmb2.585 trillion ($396 billion) during Asiamoney’s awards period, between October 2019 and the end of September 2020, Wind data shows.
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The 31st annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, hedge fund & private equity firms, insurance companies and wealth management houses in Asia, Europe and North America.
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The 31st annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, hedge fund & private equity firms, insurance companies and wealth management houses in Asia, Europe and North America.
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Too many Chinese investors focus on the originator more than the asset pool. That undermines one of the crucial purposes of securitization.
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China’s decision to clamp down on Ant Group has derailed an IPO of at least $34 billion, despite execution being finished last week. The move appears to be little more than political muscle-flexing by Beijing. The real winners will be the country’s critics.
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It was Chairman Mao who said Chinese women should play an equal role, working in the fields and factories: decades later, women are evident in the upper ranks of the financial sector, but seldom make it to the very top.
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Ant Group’s choice of Hong Kong and Shanghai for its listing signals how flush the two markets are with liquidity. But the upcoming US presidential elections have issuers worried.
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Shenzhen-based China Merchants Bank continues to set the standards for corporate and investment banking in the domestic market in almost every segment, under Chen Yujia, general manager of investment banking.
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Citic Securities underwrote Rmb1.1 trillion ($161 billion) of domestic bonds during our awards period, between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, and was the only firm to exceed the Rmb1 trillion mark. That big undertaking was split across 2,479 onshore bonds, proof of the frenetic pace of China’s domestic debt market.
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Haitong International has become a respected player in the offshore equity market. Under Sean Huang, group head of corporate finance and co-chairman of investment banking, the firm has helped a variety of Chinese companies raise cash offshore.
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It is seven years since CLSA was acquired by Citic Securities, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary. CLSA’s staff in Hong Kong now work closely with their domestic counterparts, creating a powerful double-act for M&A advisory.
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As one of the largest and most internationalized Chinese banks, Bank of China (BOC) continued to serve as the bridge for domestic clients venturing offshore, as well as for foreign issuers seeking funding opportunities in mainland China’s Rmb109 trillion ($16 trillion) market.
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Citi’s China business, led by chief executive Christine Lam, delivered Rmb5.95 billion ($871 million) of revenues with Rmb2.07 billion of net profits in 2019.
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Liu Xiaodan almost single-handedly built Huatai United Securities into a top Chinese investment bank for mergers and acquisitions within a decade. But Liu, M&A banker-turned-chair, left Huatai United in August 2019 and set up her own private equity firm this May.
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Citic Securities remains the leader in domestic equities underwriting, with a volume of Rmb304.1 billion during our awards period, according to Wind – an increase of 35% from a year ago, which is an eye-catching rise for such a large firm.
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Citic Securities is the clear winner of this category – just look at the numbers. The firm reported revenues of Rmb43.1 billion ($6.3 billion) in 2019, and a net profit of Rmb12.2 billion, surpassing all of its rivals among the Chinese securities houses.
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During our awards period between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) underwrote 2,298 domestic bonds, according to Wind.
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Bank of China (BOC) was involved in nearly 150 M&A projects worth a combined $62 billion during our awards period – between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020 – taking the total number of deals it has been involved in over the years to nearly 1,000.
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China Merchants Bank (CMB) provides its clients with advisory services beyond just lending and potential acquisitions; under its president Tian Huiyu, CMB has become one of the most tech-savvy banks in the country, using these skills to provide advice on financing strategy and deal structuring.
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There is plenty of green finance research done by banks and credit rating agencies in China.
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Many Chinese green companies find it hard to finance their overseas Belt and Road projects, even with the guarantee of their parent firms.
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Many Chinese banks have rolled out financial products to facilitate green finance transactions. But Industrial Bank’s ‘Lv Chuang Dai’ – which literally translates as ‘green innovative loan’ – stood out because of its ability to tap a huge pool of government funding.
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Sustainable investment is still in its infancy in the Chinese onshore market. Many funds have not yet set up any environment, social and governance (ESG) -themed or green products. But China Southern Asset Management, led by general manager Yang Xiaosong, has integrated ESG principles into its own business operation as well as its investment decisions.
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It was a particularly tough year to pick the winner of this award. With China’s domestic green finance industry fast developing, multiple verification agencies have sprung up in recent years.
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating (CCXI), which has over 27 years of experience in rating domestic bonds, has long had a dominant market share in the wider onshore bond market. That now applies to the green bond market, too.
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Bank of China’s $960 million Sofr-linked deal, issued in dollars, euros and offshore renminbi, was a landmark deal in more ways than one.
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All of the big four Chinese banks – Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – have bet big on the green bond market. But ABC stands out for beating even its own lofty track record during our awards period.
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Provincial and regional banks have a huge role to play in boosting the appeal of China’s green finance industry for local governments. No other bank has done this better than the Bank of Huzhou, a local joint-stock commercial firm based in Zhejiang province.
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Industrial Bank has become the leading green finance bank in China’s domestic market.
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China Minsheng Bank is regarded as one of the most innovative and technology-savvy Chinese banks – and its precious metals
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Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), run by president Pan Weidong, is recognized by both its state-owned and joint stock commercial peers as a leading Chinese joint stock bank in gold trading. Over the last five years, its turnover from retail customers trading gold on the Shanghai Gold Exchange jumped 28 times, from Rmb41.6 billion ($5.8 billion) in 2014 to a record Rmb1.21 trillion in 2019. Year-on-year growth was nearly 127%.
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Bank of China (BoC) entered the international gold market in the 1970s, when it was a specialized foreign exchange and trade bank – becoming the first Chinese commercial bank to do so.
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Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), managed by president Zhang Qingsong, has a natural advantage over its Chinese peers when it comes to the retail market: it has at least 20,000 branches in mainland China, serving more than 600 million clients nationwide and providing its retail precious metal clients easy access to the products on offer.
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In the decade since it set up its specialized precious metal business in Shanghai, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has become a leader in sales, trading, leasing and other services relating to physical and financial precious metals – particularly gold – for both retail and institutional clients. ICBC was the first bank to win a licence for its precious metals division. Over the last decade, it has grown into a full-service gold bank, offering clients over 500 products across 36 categories. More than 120 million clients have invested in ICBC’s regular gold investment product, which has brought in Rmb4.6 billion ($644 million) of income for the bank.
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Deyu may still be young in global terms but it was one of the earliest multi-family offices established in China. The MFO was founded over four years ago by Zhang Yong, a senior banker who had previously helped to set up the private banking department at China Minsheng Bank.
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Minmetals Trust’s wealth management arm serves tens of thousands of high net-worth individuals and corporate clients, providing asset allocation across all markets through its flagship Heng Xin product line, which offers underlying assets ranging from infrastructure projects to supply chain finance.
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CICC became a pioneer among securities houses in China when it ventured into wealth management in 2007, setting an example to rivals who have only recently recognized the potential of the wealth management sector.
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Harvest may not be the largest fund manager in China, but it has managed to deliver stunning returns for investors year after year.
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Noah’s overseas assets under management reached Rmb24.8 billion ($3.49 billion) in 2019, some 14.6% of the company’s total AuM. Its net income from overseas also jumped, rising 25.4% last year to hit nearly Rmb1 billion. Its contribution to the company’s overall revenues rose by 5 percentage points, to 27.9% from 22.9%.
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At CreditEase, the number of clients and the assets under management both increased in 2019. The number of clients with at least Rmb1 million ($140,225) rose, helping assets under management top Rmb100 billion by the end of 2019, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%.
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At CreditEase, the number of clients and the assets under management both increased in 2019. The number of clients with at least Rmb1 million ($140,225) rose, helping assets under management top Rmb100 billion by the end of 2019, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%.
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At CreditEase, the number of clients and the assets under management both increased in 2019. The number of clients with at least Rmb1 million ($140,225) rose, helping assets under management top Rmb100 billion by the end of 2019, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%.
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In recent years, China’s online financial services industry has welcomed a handful of ambitious newcomers, including Ping An Bank’s One Connect and Alibaba Cloud Financial Services Solutions. But Hundsun Technologies, a pioneer in the field, has managed to maintain its leading position as a technology partner to banks.
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Competition in the Chinese mobile banking market, whether for corporate or retail clients, is fierce. But China Merchants Bank’s CMB Corporate App stands out because of the sheer number of clients it serves, as well as its wide array of functions.
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All Chinese banks are keen to adopt financial technologies, but none has taken the mission to heart as much as China Merchants Bank. Since about 2014, executives at the bank have repeatedly said that the bank’s goal is to become a financial technology bank. Last year, the bank put that promise on paper. In October, the bank amended its Articles of Association to include specific amounts of fintech spending – the first Chinese commercial bank to do such a thing.
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In 2019, Bank of China and its offshore subsidiaries completed $5.2 trillion of international trading transactions. It also conducted Rmb7.32 trillion ($1 trillion) of cross-border renminbi payments. Both numbers put it in the top spot, not just in China, but in the world.
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Industrial Bank has chosen to focus its supply-chain finance business on several key industries: auto, consumer products, green, medicine and public infrastructure. Driven by vice-president Chen Xinjian, the bank has managed to expand its supply-chain finance business much more rapidly than its rivals. By 2019, the bank’s outstanding supply-chain finance volume reached Rmb249.5 billion ($35 billion), a jump of 115% from the previous year. The bank signed up 121 leading companies in 2019, bringing the total to 403 so far. These companies have in turn brought in 4,845 small and medium-sized enterprises as part of their supply chains. That number also represents a 64% increase from the previous year. Financing through the bank’s bills pool reached Rmb143.4 billion, nearly tripling the amount from the end of last year.
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Ping An Bank’s cash management business offers an extensive range of products befitting a wide range of clients, including renminbi cash pool, foreign exchange risk management and business overdrafts. Li Yue, president of the transaction banking department, has led the bank’s drive to establish a cross-bank, cross-border smart cash management platform that allows corporate clients to monitor their bank accounts at partner banks, domestic and international, on a real-time basis.
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Bank of China only set up its global transaction banking department in 2018. But it was still the first and the only one among China’s big four – Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – to do so.
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Creative strategies to avoid the appearance of non-payment are becoming more common in China’s domestic bond market. That leaves many investors at a disadvantage and uncertain of their rights.
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Chinese issuers responded to Covid-19 by selling bonds that were designed to help fight the pandemic – in reality, only a fraction of the money raised was used to tackle problems created by the virus.
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Family offices in China have grown from practically nothing 15 years ago to a hyper-competitive industry now. Zhang Yong, a former private banker who set up one of the country’s biggest multi-family offices, shows how the market has developed.
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Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s leading financial centre is being undermined by politics. Can it survive?
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Many Chinese banks have made impressive progress in promoting technology innovation, but the bank that has pushed furthest in all aspects of its business is China Merchants Bank, led by Zhang Dong.
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As the largest bank in China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is never worried about not having enough retail clients. By June 2019, the bank boasted 627 million retail customers, issued 874 million new debit cards and 154 million new credit cards. ICBC also has the largest number of online banking clients among all Chinese banks.
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China Merchants Bank had more than 90 million active credit cards by the end of the first six months of 2019, ranking fifth in the country. However, the volume of CMB’s credit card transactions grew 12% year on year and reached Rmb2.04 trillion ($290 billion), ranking top among all Chinese banks and Rmb420 billion more than the nearest rival. CMB also managed to secure the top spot in both credit-card business revenue and offshore credit-card transaction volume in 2019.
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China’s urban population is among the most tech-savvy in the world, yet members of its rural population often have much more basic needs. China Construction Bank, more than any other bank in China, has been able to serve both populations.
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Joint stock commercial bank China Citic Bank’s private-banking business has been growing quickly. With a team of 216 specialists, Citic picked up over 8,100 clients in 2019, up 24% and taking the total to nearly 42,000. Assets under management amounted to Rmb574 billion ($82 billion), up 22.3% over the year.
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Ping An Bank is the dark horse of private banking: it has quietly raced ahead despite fierce competition in China’s growing wealth management market, and at a time when growth at many of its rivals has moderated.
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Despite competition not only from its ‘big four’ peers but also increasingly from joint-stock and regional players, China Construction Bank Private Banking picked up over 12% more private-banking clients in 2019, lifting its client base to 143,000. That brought a similar 12% increase in assets under management, which rose to Rmb1.5 trillion ($215 billion).
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One of the first joint-stock commercial banks to start private-banking operations in the country, China Merchants Bank has established itself as a market leader over the years. That makes it all the more impressive that the bank was still able to expand its presence in 2019.
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One of the first joint-stock commercial banks to start private-banking operations in the country, China Merchants Bank has established itself as a market leader over the years. That makes it all the more impressive that the bank was still able to expand its presence in 2019.
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Last year was an important milestone for Bank of China Private Banking. In August, it consolidated three departments –wealth management and private banking, personal finance and internet finance – into two main business sections: personal digital finance and consumer finance.
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Last year was an important milestone for Bank of China Private Banking. In August, it consolidated three departments –wealth management and private banking, personal finance and internet finance – into two main business sections: personal digital finance and consumer finance.
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Foreign banks hoping to break into China’s capital markets will have their chance at the end of 2020, but muscling in on primary capital markets could prove expensive and risky.
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The Chinese asset-backed securities market saw a boom in 2019, marked by relentless innovation and cutthroat competition. The winners of Asiamoney’s second China ABS awards have driven this growth
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The 30th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world.
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The 30th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world.
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Securities Originator: Beijing Jingdong Century Trade Co., Ltd
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Fangda Partners, founded in 1993, prides itself on having more senior securitization lawyers than any of its peers. The firm specializes in corporate asset securitization, credit ABS and ABN. Wu Dong and Yan Yan are the two partners leading the firm’s securitization market coverage.
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China Chengxin International Credit Rating (CCXI) is the largest credit rating agency in China and the fourth largest in the world. A joint venture between China Chengxin Credit Management Co and Moody’s, CCXI claims to have rated every single ‘first’ deal in the ABS market.
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Although the Chinese ABS market is still relatively young compared with those in more developed markets, domestic banks and securities houses have innovated relentlessly. From structuring supply-chain asset-backed securitization to securitizing a parking-lot’s future income, the market has an insatiable appetite for new asset types.
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The asset-backed notes (ABN) market allows non-financial enterprises to issue securitization deals in the interbank market. Bank of China, more than any other firm, has led market developments.
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Account-receivables asset-back securitization is unique to China. The underlying assets of account-receivables ABS can be roughly divided into two categories: enterprises’ account-receivables obligatory rights and factoring agents’ obligatory rights. Based on these two types of underlying assets, account-receivables ABS can be divided into general and reverse factoring or, as bankers call it, supply-chain ABS.
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CSC was one of the first securities houses in mainland China to tap into the commercial mortgage-backed securities industry. Since 2014, it has arranged eight CMBS deals with a total value of Rmb22.4 billion ($3.2 billion), ranking number one in the market both in terms of number and volume of deals. The team was led by managing director Xie Changgang.
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It was an easy decision to give China Merchants Securities (CMS) the award for best for residential mortgage-backed securities in China. The securities house, part of China Merchants Group, deserves the title in every possible way.
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Auto ABS was one of the earliest sectors to develop in the Chinese securitization market. With time, market participants have improved deal structures and nurtured a relatively stable pool of investors.
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Banks and securities houses have raced to grab market share and come up with new products with higher levels of structural complexity. In a conversation with Asiamoney, one head of structured finance at a securities firm warned that the Chinese asset-backed securities market may have already become too crowded.
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Haitong's ambition and aggression has helped shape Asia's financial system, and made it a mainstay of Hong Kong's capital markets.
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Rivals did not pay much attention to CMB up until 2017, but since then its stock has almost doubled, and now all eyes are on this Chinese financial institution.
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With its commitment to sustainable finance, Agricultural Bank of China is helping shape Asia's financial system.
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This financial institution is clearly one to watch on a global scale, thanks to its presence in 57 countries and domination of the renminbi clearing market.
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Just 35 years in the making, ICBC is the world's largest bank – and is continuing to shape the global financial system to also become the best.
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CICC's international background gives it a major role in shaping Asia's financial system, connecting China with the world.
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With one billion customers and beyond, Alibaba’s payments engine is disrupting the financial system in Asia – and it's one to keep an eye on globally too.
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One to watch in China is this transformed financial institution, which claims not only that it knows what its customers want – but how to give it to them, too, in a digital world.
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This Chinese financial institution should be on everyone's digital radar, not just for being one of the world's largest unicorms, but for also trying 'to make the world flatter' – via tech.
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Asiamoney has dived deep into China’s burgeoning corporate and investment banking markets to reveal the best banks and securities firms
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Mergers and acquisitions are at the heart of Huatai United Securities’ investment banking business.
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China International Capital Corp maintained its leadership in cross-border equity capital markets during our awards period, and worked on more ECM deals involving Chinese issuers than any of its Chinese and global peers, with an overall deal volume of $10 billion, according to Dealogic.
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The investment banking arm of Bank of China, BOCI, together with other BOC entities including the bank’s Hong Kong branch, has always shown leadership in both Chinese and Asian offshore bonds, ranking alongside global firms such as HSBC and Citi.
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Over the years, Citi has transformed itself into a household brand and a go-to foreign bank in China, both in institutional banking and consumer banking. Last year was a strong one for the firm, which saw 22% growth in its revenues to Rmb6.46 billion ($908 million), and a 63% jump in net profit to Rmb2.55 billion.
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By deal volume, China International Capital Corp ranked number one on the M&A financial advisers’ league table involving Chinese companies during our awards period, with a market share of more than 11%, according to data supplied by Dealogic.
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Having been one of the top three domestic bond underwriters by market share since 2012, China Securities Co (CSC), whose bond underwriting department is headed by Guo Chunlei, has maintained strong growth momentum in recent years, from an already very high base.
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Citic Securities maintained its market leading position in domestic equity capital markets underwriting during our awards period. Between June 1, 2018 and May 31, 2019, Citic was involved in 57 ECM transactions with a volume of Rmb217 billion ($31 billion) – 64% higher than the second-place name, according to Wind.
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To say that Citic Securities is an indisputable leader among Chinese securities houses is not an overstatement. Serving more than 8,000 clients, including over 1,600 listed companies, the investment banking business headed by Ma Yao is well-established and highly reputable. With 1,100 bankers based out of 13 domestic offices, the brokerage serves a full range of clients from state-owned enterprises to private companies and local government financing platforms.
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Up against state-owned banks such as Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the biggest lenders even at a global scale, CMB found a space among the very best in leverage finance.
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There is no denying that Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is a volume house, just like its Chinese big four peers. During our awards period of June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019, ICBC ranked first among all banks in terms of domestic bond underwriting, with a volume of Rmb1.36 trillion ($191 billion) and a 12.3% market share, according to Wind.
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China Merchants Bank is China’s premier joint stock commercial bank; its investment banking business has a team of more than 500 bankers in offices across the mainland, headed by general manager Han Gang from the Shenzhen headquarters.
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Securities firms will get a reputation management score from SAC, limiting their ability to provide balanced views. It looks like a step backwards for the country’s financial system.
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The People's Bank of China has thrown out a four-year-old lending rate and introduced two new references, but onshore bankers have doubts about what the central bank's change will achieve.
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In 30 years, China has gone from a backward command economy to a global superpower, but what will the next 30 hold? Asiamoney picks 10 factors to watch, from the renminbi to bonds to wealth management, as we move towards the mid-century.
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As part of Asiamoney’s 30th anniversary coverage, we have selected six key individuals who have contributed more than most to the development of banking and capital markets in China. Their stories illustrate three decades of extraordinary growth.
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Which banks and other service providers continue to lead the charge in China green finance?
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View the results of the 2019 Asiamoney best transaction banks in China awards here
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As the wealth management industry deepens, here are the firms that stand out.
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The inaugural Asiamoney China Gold Awards seek to recognise Chinese banks that have excelled in serving corporate and retail clients in the gold market. In making our decisions, banks were asked to prove their credentials through a range of products and services, customer base and the introduction of innovative offerings
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There are many reasons why Industrial Bank beats the big state-owned banks to become the largest bank issuer of green bonds in China, but one contributing factor is its outstanding research capability.
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Wang Yao, professor and director general of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), has won international fame not only for her outstanding green finance research, but also for the prominent role she has played in promoting green finance development in China. Wang started research on green finance while working in the banking sector at the start of the millennium. There, she gained first-hand experience of how green finance worked in the real world and why it was urgently needed in China.
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Huzhou city was chosen by the central Chinese government in June 2017 as “a pilot green finance reform and innovation zone”. The city quickly took a top-down approach to accelerating the development of green finance, which has proved to very effective.
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China Chengxin Credit Management, incorporated in Beijing in 1992, is China’s largest credit rating agency. It has also established itself as a leading domestic green finance verification agency.
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In China’s green finance sector, Ernst & Young is an admired player because of its position as the largest green finance verifier and its role in promoting sustainable green finance development with expertise and innovative services.
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ICBC was not only the largest issuer of green bonds overseas among the Chinese banks last year, but also a clear leader in promoting the development of green finance outside China.
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With the robust growth of the green finance sector in China, local financial institutions and their regulators need to improve the collection and analysis of data on the environmental benefits of green finance projects.
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Industrial Bank was the largest issuer of green bonds among Chinese banks in 2018, domestically and abroad. Its guidelines and standards set out for its own green bond issues have also won recognition from international agencies.
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Bank of Huzhou was established in 1997 in the eponymous economically vibrant, medium-sized city in east China’s Zhejiang province. With total assets of Rmb52 billion ($7.5 billion) at the end of 2018, it is a small bank by Chinese standards. Yet it has emerged as a leader (at least among the numerous regional commercial banks in China) on multiple fronts in green finance.
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Industrial Bank is a pioneer in China’s green finance sector. It started making green loans in 2006 and was the first Chinese bank to adopt the Equator Principles, an internationally recognized, risk-management framework for financial institutions to determine, assess and manage environmental and social risks in projects.
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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is not only the leading provider of green loans in China, but also the top issuer among Chinese banks of green bonds in the international markets, and the most active of the Chinese banks in collaborating with domestic and international agencies to advance the development of green finance, both at home and abroad.
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China Minsheng Bank has won acclaim for its innovative products and services, even though it was not the first lender to serve precious-metal clients in the domestic banking sector.
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Shanghai Pudong Development Bank has established itself as a leader in the domestic retail gold market by virtue of its effective marketing strategy, outstanding education programmes and investment advisory services, even though it is a much smaller bank than the state-owned Chinese commercial banks by assets.
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Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is regarded as a pioneer among Chinese banks when it comes to developing products and services to help its customers trade and invest in gold and other precious metals, and last year it continued to strengthen its position as the market leader in serving precious-metal clients.
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CreditEase Wealth Management enables high net-worth families to set up family offices at lower cost, helping them incorporate their values and philosophy from the outset. It also provides the second-generation members with a wide range of training opportunities, including offshore education.
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CreditEase Wealth Management enables many high net-worth Chinese individuals to invest in offshore real estate, as well as helping them with immigration planning, tax planning and legal consulting. It operates investment offices around the world.
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CICC is one of China’s leading investment banks. It also is one of the nation’s leading securities firms catering to high net-worth individuals.
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CreditEase, led by founder and chief executive Tang Ning, has assets under management of more than Rmb109 billion ($16 billion), up more than 13% from a year ago. It serves more than 30,000 high net-worth customers, as well as several hundred thousand mass-affluent investors, and has more than 1,200 full-time account managers, 60% of whom have professional wealth advisory certificates.
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Avic Trust, co-founded by China State Aviation Industry Group and Singapore’s OCBC Bank, is one of the top 10 trust companies in China. Avic caters to high net-worth individuals who want to set up family trusts. Such trusts have at least Rmb10 million ($1.4 million) in assets, and Avic offers both onshore and offshore financial planning.
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Noah Holding’s subsidiary Gopher Asset Management is primarily a fund of funds (FoF) manager with total assets under management of around Rmb170 billion ($24.5 billion). The FoF has delivered an annualized rate of return ranging from 50% to 100% through various strategic stakes in more than 100 funds from around the world and 200 venture companies.
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Founded in 2007, Noah Holdings is China’s leading wealth management service provider for 2019, focused on global wealth investment and asset allocation services for high net-worth individuals as well as enterprises.
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Mobile banking is the new battleground for digitalization of corporate banking business. Since the launch of the China Guangfa mobile banking app a few years ago, the bank has received positive feedback from customers.
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China Merchants Bank is so serious about improving its customer experience that its transaction banking division recently set up a specialist unit, employing 10 people to research client interactions, both online and offline. The team is using the research results to improve the bank’s service interfaces, both online and offline, as well as to help its biggest clients to tailor-make and build entire e-banking services.
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Bank of China remains the most global of Chinese banks when it comes to trade finance. It offers clients a large global network for renminbi exchange and clearing through more than 110 offshore branches. The bank has invested in building out a substantial global IT network that offers clients the ability to manage cash and seek trade financing globally.
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Bank of Communications has developed a complete one-stop supply chain management and financing platform that focuses on payment settlement, trade financing and value-added services.
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Since 2009, Bank of China has invested nearly Rmb600 million ($87 million) in building a domestic and foreign currency, global cash-management platform that connects the banks’ enterprise clients to the world of finance, giving them not only cash management abilities but also access to the global Swift remittance network, and multi-bank cash management systems.
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Agricultural Bank of China is best known for serving businesses in the nations’ agricultural and rural economies. But the bank has expanded in recent years to provide cash management services to 2.45 million clients across all industries and urban centres, including the majority of China’s top 500 corporations.
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CCB’s enterprise-level aggregate payment platform was launched in September 2017.
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Known as Gongyinju, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s homegrown e-commerce platform is widely used among the bank’s corporate clients. Over the last five years, ICBC has built and adapted Gongyinju for 204 large and medium-sized enterprises, creating a system that gathers more than 90,000 associated upstream and downstream small and micro-enterprises. The platform has helped these enterprises to handle close to 11 million online orders, altogether worth Rmb1.4 trillion ($203 billion), and resulting in Rmb1.54 trillion in total settled transactions.
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China has made great strides in developing its bond market, but bankers and credit analysts admit there are still big problems with the accuracy of financial accounting.
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The move prompts questions about which other banks could be at risk, and forces the central bank to guarantee Bank of Jinzhou’s issuance of short-term debt.
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In a challenging market, some have been nimble in transforming themselves in to winners, often through good use of technology
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How do China's private banks handle the increasing amount of wealth that is generated outside the country?
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Agricultural Bank of China, led by president and chairman Zhou Mubing, has developed a large wealth management product portfolio for its high net-worth customers, and has 309 private banking and wealth management centres operating across China and a team of 2,000 professional managers.
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In 2007, China Citic Bank became one of the first Chinese banks to offer private banking services. Led by LV Tiangui, general manager of private and retail banking, it outperformed other domestic national commercial banks in 2018, growing its private banking customer base and assets under management by upgrading its online and offshore support services for high net-worth clients.
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Although family offices are fairly new in China’s private banking sector, there is no question which bank is the leader in this area: China Minsheng Bank’s private bank. It was one of the first to open family offices for ultra-high net-worth clients.
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The Bank of Communications private banking unit leads in product innovation and development by providing its 40,000 high net-worth clients with a basketful of investment products and services, some of which are particularly innovative.
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There is no question that the Bank of China (BOC), led by chairman Chen Siqing, and its private banking unit have the largest global network among Chinese financial institutions.
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Ping An Bank private bank’s assets under management of Rmb450 billion ($67 billion) may just be a fraction of those at national private bank leaders — but it is quickly catching up by offering a range of innovative services.
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The Bank of Beijing’s private bank continues to be the best regional private bank by far. Based in the capital and led by chairman Zhang Dongning, the Bank of Beijing serves 48,000 high net-worth clients who collectively have Rmb220 billion ($33 billion) in assets under management.
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China Merchants Bank’s private bank is the one that almost every other private bank looks to. Without exception, every private banker Asiamoney interviewed said that CMB is the leader in the private banking field. For that reason, CMB wins Asiamoney’s Best National Private Bank award.
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China Construction Bank’s private bank leads the field among state-owned banks in helping high net-worth clients with the most comprehensive services. It has a team of 1,800 wealth management consultants and account managers dedicated to serving clients through more than 300 wealth management centres spread across China, and centres in Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. At the end of 2018, CCB served 127,000 wealthy clients, with a total of Rmb1.35 trillion ($200 billion) in assets under management, the largest among the nation’s top five largest state-owned banks.
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PSBC continues to lead domestic banks in providing and promoting inclusive finance across China by running the most extensive network in rural areas among domestic banks.
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China Merchants Bank is widely recognized as a technology leader in China’s banking sector. This award is to recognize the remarkable progress the bank has made to gain a foothold in China’s mobile payment market, which is dominated by domestic technology firms.
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Among Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China has the largest retail client pool for online banking. In recent years, ABC has consistently ranked number one among domestic banks in terms of transactions generated by retail online banking and mobile phone banking operations.
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Ping An Bank is widely perceived as a leading provider of car finance, not only because of the robust growth it has seen in this business area but also for the leadership it has demonstrated in adopting technologies that facilitate car finance services and control the risks in the business.
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As a big bank issuer of credit cards in China, China Merchants bank stood out because of the rapid expansion of its customer base for credit cards and for its customers’ active use of the cards.
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Bank of Ningbo was incorporated in Ningbo, a port city in east China’s Zhejiang province, in 1997 and operates mainly in Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and in Shanghai.
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Despite its massive operations, ABC has proved itself to be a nimble player in transforming and strengthening its retail banking business with the use of technology and a management upgrade. That enabled the bank to outperform other state-owned banks across segments of retail banking in the first three quarters of 2018.
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BoC has only just opened its first Sri Lankan branch, but already it wants to be the biggest foreign player in the market. In an exclusive interview, Asiamoney sits down with the lender’s senior local bankers to discuss its goals and ambitions.
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Chinese premier Li Keqiang has told the country’s banks they need to increase their lending to small companies, but the details are fuzzy.
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Top-rated strategists – as ranked by the Asiamoney Brokers Poll – see opportunities for smaller Asian economies to lure manufacturers away from China during the latest dispute.
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The 29th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world. A total of 6,540 valid individual responses from 3,100 different institutions, including 411 hedge funds, were received.
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The 29th annual Asiamoney Brokers Poll invited chief investment officers, fund managers and investment analysts to take part. Voters represented fund management houses, insurance companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and wealth managers from around the world. A total of 6,540 valid individual responses from 3,100 different institutions, including 411 hedge funds, were received.
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In Chinese banking, government-owned doesn’t always mean stodgy and slow to innovate. State-owned banks across the country are absorbing fintech into traditional models to meet surging consumer demand for sharper financial tools. Here’s a few that we've liked this year.
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China’s asset-backed securitization market, already the largest in Asia, still has plenty more room for growth. The winners of Asiamoney’s China ABS awards are helping to push that expansion – one deal at a time
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CCXI, the first rating agency in China, has by now become familiar with moving faster than its peers. A 70/30 joint venture between China Chengxin Credit Management Co and Moody’s, it was the first company to rate an ABS product in China, and has stayed ahead of the pack ever since. It’s chair is Yan Yan.
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As China’s securitization market expands, it also grows in complexity. Originators now demand tailor-made client solutions and structural innovations. CICC, more than any other firm, has answered this call.
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Over the year, HSBC has established itself as one of the leaders in the securitization market in China, having become the first foreign bank to act as sub-underwriter, and then a joint lead underwriter, in 2015. Since then, it has earned a reputation as a savvy player in China’s fast-growing market under Kyson Ho, head of structured finance.