After about 17 years on the mainland, Dutch lender Rabobank is opening a branch in Beijing today to serve customers seeking to expand overseas or those needing its expertise in financial services in the agriculture sector.
At a time when several large foreign players are divesting their stakes in Chinese banks to raise capital, Rabobank - the Netherlands' second-largest lender by assets that escaped relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis - is beefing up its operations in China.
Sipko Schat, the chairman of Rabobank's international wholesale division, said yesterday the bank planned to double the size of its 70-strong workforce on the mainland in two years.
Its Beijing operation will focus on relations with state-owned enterprises while its Shanghai operation will deal with products and services such as commodities hedging, mergers and acquisitions, trade finance and research.
While it recently lost its status as the world's only privately owned bank with a top AAA rating from Standard & Poor's, Schat said the downgrade reflected the impact of the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis.
'Being a member of the [European Union], this is one of the consequences,' he said.