Foreign banks’ extra leeway in China will benefit consumers, says HSBC’s regional boss
Further market liberalisation will lead to better products and services for customers by increasing competition, says HSBC Asia Pacific CEO
New measures making it easier for foreign banks to operate in China will increase competition and ultimately benefit consumers, according to the regional chief executive of HSBC Holdings.
“The opening up is a good thing,” Peter Wong Tung-shun, deputy chairman and chief executive of HSBC Asia Pacific, told the South China Morning Post.
However, he said HSBC has no plans to make new investments in any of its domestic rivals despite Beijing’s new measures to further open up the market to overseas players.
The extra leeway provided by regulators will lead to better products and services being available to customers by increasing competition in the world’s second largest economy, said Wong, also HSBC’s managing director, on the sidelines of an annual gathering of the nation’s top political advisers in Beijing on Sunday.
The bank, the largest lender in Hong Kong, already works closely with Bank of Communications (BoCom) as a partner, and it has no further plans to buy stakes in any other domestic banks, he said.
HSBC holds an 18.7 per cent stake in Shanghai-based BoCom, the mainland’s fifth largest bank. BoCom is dual-listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and was the first of the China’s five biggest banks to go public.