The mainland's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), is planning to streamline operations by injecting a Shenzhen-based Sino-foreign bank into its Hong Kong firm.
In the asset reshuffle, ICBC could offload its last Sino-foreign bank interest - Chinese Mercantile Bank. ICBC has quit three such banks over the past few years.
The injection could give ICBC (Asia) speedy access to the mainland market, in which it has yet to have a presence.
Sources said the plan, mooted late last year to take advantage of the closer economic partnership arrangement, had been put on the backburner recently as the bank was wrapping up a deal to buy the Hong Kong retail and commercial operations of the Dutch-Belgian Fortis Group.
The Fortis deal would double ICBC (Asia)'s branch network to about 40 and boost its asset size by 30 per cent to more than $95 billion
An ICBC spokesman in Beijing failed to confirm the injection plan yesterday, although it was understood the deal was being finalised but had yet to go before mainland banking authorities.
