CITIC Industrial Bank, one of China's leading joint-stock lenders, is stepping up its financial restructuring as the bank prepares to receive 9 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) from its parent company in mid-December.

This capital injection from the CITIC Group can raise the lender's capital adequacy ratio from the current 5.9 percent to 8 percent, the industry watchdog's baseline for joint-stock banks.

"The ongoing financial restructuring paves the way for CITIC's transformation into a retailing bank, and the plan to get listed next year," Chen Xiaoxian, president of China CITIC Bank, disclosed.

As a symbolic move, the bank changed its name and logo into "China CITIC Bank" on Friday, leaving "industrial" out, as the word may give the misleading impression that the bank only focuses on some industries.

"The change of our name implies that we are interested in all types of banking, the first step in our strategic restructuring," Chen added.

The bank is strengthening its personal banking business by being more focused on credit card business and VIP wealth management.

After launching CITIC Star credit cards two years ago, the bank recently issued Magic credit cards targeting women. The number of CITIC Star users topped 1 million in October.

"We are striving to make personal banking account for 20 percent of our business," Chen said.

The average for China's commercial banks hovers around 10 percent.

When changing its business structure, the bank is also in discussions with foreign strategic investors.

"We've contacted some renowned foreign banks, such as Citibank and Chartered," Chen told China Daily. "But we are also interested in other non-lenders, say, private funds."

As for the criteria for picking out the right strategic investor, Chen disclosed that CITIC's choice comes in the plans offered by the foreign investor. "It would be the one most favorable to CITIC Bank," Chen said.

(China Daily November 28, 2005)