Singapore’s OCBC seeks partner for China securities joint venture

Bloomberg

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. (OCBC) is looking for a Chinese firm to team up with on a securities joint venture on the mainland, the latest foreign bank seeking to capitalsise on the nation’s financial-industry loosening.
Obtaining a Chinese securities license would allow OCBC to do asset management, investment banking and fund management business in the nation, Chief Executive Officer Samuel Tsien said in an interview in Singapore this week. Southeast Asia’s second-biggest bank by assets is talking to various firms that have shown an interest in such a partnership, he said.
“We will prefer to partner with companies that have a larger franchise already” so OCBC can sell into its existing client base, Tsien said, adding that the bank hasn’t applied for a license yet.
Under President Xi Jinping, China is gradually taking steps to give foreign financial firms more access to the world’s second-largest economy.
That’s prompted banks from Credit Suisse Group AG to JPMorgan Chase & Co. to seek a piece of the more than $40 trillion financial industry through controlling stakes in local ventures.
“For us, what we need is to be able to reach out to as many potential customers as we can” through a securities joint venture, Tsien said. Without extensive branch networks or a digital presence in China, “it’s very difficult for foreign banks to be able to reach out to them.”