Hong Kong's sixth largest bank, after acquiring Fortis, will target clients who travel to and from the mainland
ICBC (Asia) will avoid competing directly against big players in the Hong Kong retail banking sector despite expecting a threefold increase in customer numbers through its imminent takeover of Belgian-based Fortis Bank (Hong Kong).
The merger, expected to be completed by the end of next month, will double the number of ICBC branches to 42 and make it Hong Kong's sixth largest bank in terms of total assets.
Managing director and chief executive Zhu Qi said yesterday that the bank would instead focus on developing products and services for customers who travelled to the mainland.
'We expect that we still won't be a very big bank in terms of branch and client numbers even after the acquisition [of Fortis Bank],' said Mr Zhu. 'There will still be quite a distance between us and the big players. So in order to stay strong in the market our retail banking services must be special and target different customers.'
Some of the cross-border businesses in the bank's sights include providing mortgage services to mainland customers for their Hong Kong properties and further bolstering its yuan banking services.
