Mr. Shangkong | US banker proud to become Chinese national

The rise of China has not only transformed the global landscape of the financial industry, but it has also changed an American banker’s nationality.

Some in Hong Kong’s financial community were surprised by an e-mail from one of the most veteran investment bankers in the city on Tuesday night. Marshall Nicholson, a managing director in charge of investment banking in Hong Kong for China International Capital Corporation (CICC) told his colleagues and friends that he had officially renounced his United States citizenship and would soon receive a HKSAR passport.

“I am very proud to say I have become Chinese,” said Nicholson in the e-mail, which was seen by the South China Morning Post and spread quickly in the local banking world on Tuesday night.

Nicholson, whose wife is a Hongkonger, first came to the city about 11 years ago from the US where he was an investment banker with some legendary Wall Street firms including JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch.

Prior to his current job as one of the top investment bankers at the homegrown securities firm CICC, he worked for BOC International (BOCI), Australia’s top investment bank Macquarie and Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.

BOCI, led by Li Tong, the daughter of recently retired Chinese propaganda chief Li Changchun, is the investment banking arm of Bank of China, one of China’s Big Four state-owned banks. Li Changchun was fifth-ranked official on the mainland when he was in office.