‘BofA jockeying to handle more China debt sales’

Bloomberg

Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said the lender is pushing to deepen some of the busin-ess it conducts in China as the world’s
No. 2 economy opens further to foreign investment.
The US bank is working towards “local incorporation” in China so that it can more easily help firms there sell debt, Moynihan said in Bloomberg Television interview. It has several hundred people working in the country and already has a debt underwriting business focussed on China, he said.
There’s “a lot of work for US companies and other global companies” to provide services to Chinese firms including securities sales and cash management, Moynihan said. “It’s a good market for us.”
China promised last month to let foreign firms take majority stakes in the nation’s securities firms, lifting restrictions that long frustrated US and European banks. Bank of America is among the few global investment banks that lack a joint venture in China. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley have signalled intentions to take controlling stakes in their Chinese JVs.
Moynihan was less bullish on equity
underwriting there. He said the firm doesn’t have plans to expand that business now because it’s not clear how much more activity could be generated. Most of the equity business is conducted out of Hong Kong, he said.