Blog about Virtual Assistant, Outsourcing, KPO, BPO and China

According to the head of a global recruitment agency, as a result of the worldwide financial crisis, staff layoffs at a number of multinational companies (MNCs) in the country should present an opportunity for small and medium-sized domestic enterprises (SMEs) to grab whatever talent they can.

CEO of Antal International Tony Goodwin noted that the SMEs should do so before the MNCs realize the potential of Chinese economy Read more…

Popularity: 6%

China Business, China Business News, China Economy, China Finance and Banking China, crisis, layoffs, opportunities, SME, Talent

According to a source, the banking regulators have told policymakers that forcing banks to increase reserves has hurt the industry’s ability to repay debt.

Last month, to rein in loan growth and inflation, the People’s Bank of China raised its reserve ratio requirement to a record 17.5 percent. The source also said that the China Banking Regulatory Commission has warned against ordering further increase.

The Read more…

Popularity: unranked

China Economy, China Finance and Banking bank, debt, hike, ratio, reserve

HSBC, the largest usurer in Europe, announced yesterday that it plans to open branches in China the moment it get the authorities’ permission and expand the population of its staff by over 50 percent by the end of this year.

Read more…

Popularity: unranked

China Economy, China Finance and Banking branch, Europe, HSBC, usurer

According to the State of Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), compared with the end of December, China’s foreign debt rose 5.1 percent to $392.6 billion by the end of December, a majority of which is attributable to the growth in short-term debt.

Analysts warned that the rapid growth in short-term borrowing pointed to the risk of inflow of speculate capital which brings yuan appreciation.

The SAFE reported on Friday, the amount of short-term debt reached $236.7 billion, covering 60.3 percent of the Read more…

Popularity: unranked

China Economy, China Finance and Banking China, debt, foreign, majority, rise

Several years ago, firms used to have consultants to invest. But now, only with consultants is not enough.The work about environmental guidelines for companies investing in or providing economic aid to overseas countries is undertaken by the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP), cooperating with the Global Environmental Institute (GEI) and the University of International Business and Economics. The GEI said the first draft of the work is now on the way. Read more…

Popularity: unranked

China Finance and Banking consult, environmental, guidlines, invest

Today witnessed a dramatic fall of yuan in seven weeks, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. It is the biggest drop since May 27. It is also the first decline in three days after a report today showed China’s economic growth cooled in the second quarter, increasing pressure on authorities to switch from fighting inflation to protect exporters. Before that the central bank had set a weaker daily reference rate, suggesting that it is seeking to boost growth and deter speculators.

Gross domestic product grew 10.1 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the slowest since 2005, compared with a 10.6 percent pace of growth in the first three months of the year, the statistics bureau said today in Beijing. China will likely allow the yuan to appreciate more slowly and relax controls on fuel price increases. As reported some export oriented industries has tried to persuade the government to rein in currency gains and increase export-tax rebate.

Popularity: 5%

China Finance and Banking dollar, increasing pressure, to protect export, yuan

Some Microcredit companies are going to be launched in Zhejiang province in July to cater to small and medium-sized enterprises’ demand for capital. It is said to standardized and regulate private capital, each country in the province will have one to two microcredit companies.

Microcredit has a 14 year history in China. In October 1993, the government introduced MF, modeled from the Grameen Bank, as part of the poverty alleviation initiatives. Since then three main players have immerged – CFPA, CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) and CICETE (China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges), along with their international backers. All of these players have focused on using Grameen styled MF as a poverty alleviation tool for rural China, to varying degrees of success.

Today there are over 300 small microfinance pilot projects, few of which are financially sustainable. CFPA is the only one which has brought all its project sites together in a branch model. Till now microcredit association has not been able to become a legal entity due to the lack of relevant registration framework, as their members are unable to become legal financial institution. Due to this lack of registration, microcredit association’s activities are limited to some training courses, and promoting NGO microfinance regulations negotiations with the relevant government bodies. China is considered one of the last frontiers for microfinance. The market is huge, the existing providers are not providing good service and most are not sustainable.

Concerning the to be built microcredit companies in Zhejiang, microcredit lenders will be chosen from quality private enterprises whose net assets should be no less than 50 million yuan, asset-liability ratio less than 70 percent and those that have been making profits for three years in a row, with revenue higher than 15 million yuan.

The project is launched at this time when small enterprises facing financing difficulties caused by factors like soaring raw material process, and tightening monetary policy. Statistics show that because of the credit crunch, most small and medium-sized enterprises have to resort to the private lending market.

Popularity: 5%

China Finance and Banking financing difficulties aid, Microcedit company, SME, Zhejiang Province

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China National Cereals, Oil & Foodstuffs Corp and Zhonghai Trust Co Ltd. Have launched China’s first wine trust project hoping to be fruitful in the tough global capital market. Different from other wealth management products, the unit of the wine trust is measured by the “barrel”, which contains 300 bottles of wine, with each investor limited to buy no more than two barrels. It is said by now the project has been more than double oversubscribed, facing only ICBC’s private banking customers and enterprise customers.

Facing the tough global capital market, banks are searching for investment alternatives. Wines are always with high investment values and could provide a more steady income it fits the quality of an investment alternative. To profit more and more banks are paying attention to the investment alternatives in the tough circumstance. China Minsheng Banking Corp, for instance, has launched a fund investing in fine arts. Industry statistics show that in the last 20 years, long-term invested well chosen wine portfolio could bring an annual return of 10 to 12 percent. And it is less volatile than stocks and shares, and not closely related with the stock market, no wonder it is more attractive to investors looking to diversify a portfolio.

Popularity: 7%

China Finance and Banking ICBC, Investment alternatives, tough capital market, wine trust

China Construction Bank (CCB) announced on May 27th that the Bank of America is to exercise part of its call option to buy 6 billion Hong Kong-listed CBC shares from Huijin at about 2.42 Hong Kong dollars (about 31 U.S. cents) per share.

This will reduce Huijin’s CCB stake to 65.4% while boost Bank of America’s share to 10.75%, or 25.1 billion H-shares, according to the announcement.

Without CCB’s written agreement, the shares purchased under the option may not be sold until Aug. 29, 2011.

The Bank of America planned to finish the transaction on June 5, under an agreement it signed in 2005 with Central Huijin Investment, an investment arm of the government.

Popularity: 10%

BPO, China Business, China Business News, China Finance and Banking, Investment China Bank of America, CCB, China, investment, stake

While many foreign banks are vigorously cutting jobs worldwide amid the US subprime mortgage crisis, they have largely held back the ax in the Chinese market.

UBS, one of Europe’s biggest banking groups who announced 5,500 job cuts worldwide last week, said that the process of reviewing and reallocating resources “will result in a minimal number of redundancies in the region (including China)”.

Posting a $3.6 billion fourth-quarter loss and planning to reduce its workforce by as much as 5% globally over the next few month, Morgan Stanley, the second-largest US investment bank, has not yet laid off anyone in China.

JP Morgan Securities Asia-Pacific, unlike its parent who has trimmed about 10% of its headcount worldwide, is expanding its workforce by hiring more people in the country.

And Citibank China, reporting a 99% increase in operating income, said they “will continue to invest, expand, network, and hire and train people here, because China remains one of Citi’s top-priority markets anywhere in the world”.

There are two major reasons behind the optimism foreign banks have about the Chinese market.

Firstly, China’s capital market is expanding. As China International Capital Corp Ltd’s Chief Economist Ha Jiming has said, “China’s capital market has great potential in several sectors, including investment banking services, wealth management services and innovative product creation, because China still largely needs to develop the stock market and the private equity market.”

Secondly, the derivatives market shrinking in the US is to take off in the country. As Fudan University professor Sun Lijian put it, “dwindling overseas investment opportunities for foreign banks and security firms may cause them to look more closely at China.”

Popularity: 14%

BPO, BPOVIA News, China Business, China Business News, China Economy, China Finance and Banking, Investment China banking, capital market, China, Citibank, derivatives market, foreign banks, JP Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, UBS