Suning heeds Beijing's call for private lenders

Suning Commerce, one of the largest retailers on the mainland, plans to set up a bank after the central government issued guidelines encouraging private capital to enter the financial industry.

The Nanjing-based firm, formerly known as Suning Appliance, said yesterday it was "preparing actively to apply for establishing Suning Bank".

A spokeswoman said the company had secured the internet domain names "suningbank" and "sunanbank" last month for future use, but she declined to give further details.

The share price of Shenzhen-listed Suning rose 8.4 per cent to 7.59 yuan (HK$9.60) on the news.

Beijing has been encouraging private investment to enter the financial sector in order to break the near-monopoly of state-owned lenders. Last month, the State Council issued guidelines reaffirming the decision to allow private banks.

Shang Fulin, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said earlier that trials of privately owned financial institutions would debut in the second half of this year.