Jiangsu Bank, created by a merger of 10 city commercial lenders in East China's Jiangsu Province, is set to open later this month after years of discussion and preparation.

 

A publicity official with the provincial regulatory body said yesterday that the bank, with combined assets worth more than 130 billion yuan (US$16.25 billion), is ready for a final review by the local regulator before opening for business.

 

The consolidation is seen as a move by city commercial banks to get more capital and bigger market share as they face increased competition from the big State-owned banks and foreign lenders following the full opening of the financial sector.

 

Jiangsu Bank will be the second commercial lender created from the restructuring of a cluster of small city commercial banks.

 

The bank, which will be headquartered in the provincial capital of Nanjing, was created by the merger of city commercial banks in Wuxi, Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yancheng, Yangzhou, Nantong, Lianyungang, Huai'an and Xuzhou - 10 of the 11 urban banks in the province.

 

Nanjing City Commercial Bank, which had planned to join the restructuring, abandoned the option after it sold a 19.2 percent stake to France's top lender BNP Paribas for US$87 million last year and is planning to go public.

 

A relatively weak group among China's 113-strong city commercial banks, the 10 players have combined total assets of 139 billion yuan (US$17.8 billion) and loan balance of 88 billion yuan (US$11.3 billion) at the end of June. They have an average non-performing loan rate of a relatively low 3 percent.

 

The consolidation has overcome great difficulties in terms of coordinating lenders with various financial performances and appointing management. It succeeded in part to efforts made by the provincial government.

 

"Players in the northern part of Jiangsu generally have a better asset portfolio and are more profitable than their counterparts in the south," said Zhang Wei, a Nanjing Audit University researcher who participated in studying the validity of restructuring.

 

"It's hard to appoint management for the new bank because each city commercial lender had its own president and general manager," he said.

 

(China Daily December 13, 2006)