WHILE investment banks around the world are suddenly discovering China, the Bank of Nova Scotia has been steadily and quietly building its business there since it opened its first representative office in Beijing in 1982.
As Canada's third-largest bank with over US$100 billion in assets, the bank is well placed to capitalise on dynamic growth in Hong Kong and China.
The opening of another branch in Guangzhou last year was against the trend of most banks, which generally chose Shanghai as their favoured location.
But then most banks do not know China as well as the Bank of Nova Scotia.
Bank vice-president Robin Hibbard said Guangzhou was chosen because it was ''the capital of the most aggressive province in China''.
The bank also uses its Cantonese-speaking staff in Hong Kong to man the Guangzhou branch, which is a working bank rather than the shop-front window run by some others who do not yet do business in China.
Staff from the Hong Kong office go with the Guangzhou staff on sales calls to see companies to drum up new business.