Top China bank opens Middle East subsidiary

Dubai: The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) on Saturday announced the launch of its operations in the Middle East and North Africa region.

ICBC (Middle East) is the first wholly-owned subsidiary bank established in the Middle East by any Chinese bank.

"This launch also reflects that ICBC has successfully taken a major step towards expanding its overseas financial services offering and promoting its internationalisation strategy," the company said in a statement.

Located in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), ICBC (Middle East) has been authorised to conduct the financial services listed under Category One, which covers the widest range of local financial operations.

It includes accepting deposits, providing credits, trade finance, dealing in investments as principal, dealing in investments as agent, arranging credit or deals in investments, managing assets, advising on financial products or credit, arranging custody, etc.

Since the 1950s, China and the UAE have been trading partners and in recent years, bilateral trade has witnessed sustained and rapid growth. In 2007, bilateral trade amounted to more than $20 billion (Dh73.4 billion), an increase of 41 per cent over 2006.

The UAE has become China's second largest trading partner and largest export market in the Arab world. At the end of 2007, non-financial direct investment from Chin-ese enterprises in the UAE has amounted to $180 million, involving sectors such as petroleum and petrochemicals, telecommunications, trade, project contracting, logistics and real estate, while Chinese-funded companies registered in the UAE have topped 3,000.

"ICBC Middle East is committed to building a more direct and accessible bridge for investment and trade activities between China, the UAE and other Middle East countries. At the same time, ICBC (Middle East) will make full use of the geographic advantage and financial resources of the UAE and Qatar, and will gradually expand the scope of business to the entire Middle East and North Africa region," said Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of ICBC.

As China's largest commercial bank, ICBC has a large client base, advanced IT platform and diversified products.

Licence: SBI gets category 1

State Bank of India's branch, which started operations in Dubai International Financial Centre in January 2007, has recently obtained Category one licence from the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The branch can now accept deposits in foreign currencies like US dollars, euros, sterling etc from non-state markets. Under its credit portfolio, the branch will provide non-dirham corporate credit.

The branch will provide a whole range of corporate credit facilities such as working capital as well as trade finance, both fund-based and non-fund based term loans and project financing to name a few.

- Staff Report