China Development Bank (CDB), the country's largest policy-oriented lender, has worked out a plan to transform itself into a full-fledged commercial bank.

As part of the proposed plan now being reviewed by the State Council, the CDB hopes to inject at least US$20 billion as capital from Central Huijin Investment Corp to help the reform process, said a source who didn't want to be named.

"But the CDB and Central Huijin are yet to finalize the terms of their agreement because they are still in talks," the source said.

The CDB that recently backed the Barclays Bank of England financially in its bid for ABN Amro is a State-owned enterprise.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has already started auditing CDB's accounts, the source said.

Between now and next month, the NAO will determine the quality of the bank's assets and its management capability for using State capital.

But it's not clear how long CDB's restructuring process will take, BOC International Securities analyst Yuan Lin said.

The CDB is 100 percent owned by the State Council, with the Ministry of Finance acting as the representative of the shareholders.

So it would be premature to say how the equity structure will change, Yuan said.

According to CDB's latest figures, the bank's net assets' value will increase from 158 billion yuan (US$21 billion) to 300 billion yuan (US$40 billion) or more after the capital investment from Central Huijin.

(China Daily August 6, 2007)