China Postal Savings Bank opened its 22nd provincial branch in
Shanghai today, offering a full range of financial services.
The branch will work jointly with the city's 444 post office
outlets. The lender has 387 ATM machines and 5.4 billion yuan
(US$744.90 million) in client savings accounts in the city. Fifty
of its post office outlets accept US dollar savings business.
The branch plans to expand foreign exchange services to include
currencies such as the euro, yen and pound.
The postal savings bank, now China's fifth largest commercial
bank in terms of deposits, completed registration on March 6 and
launched its headquarters in Beijing on March 20 with registered
capital of 20 billion yuan.
The bank is a spinoff from the China Postal Bureau and received
approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission in December
2006.
The central government wanted to separate the bureau's banking
business from its postal operations to prevent corruption and
fraud.
The bank is expected to focus on retailing and intermediary
businesses mainly in rural areas, where two thirds of its outlets
are based.
The China Postal Bureau started taking deposits in 1986. It has
more than 352 billion yuan in assets, 260 million account holders
and 70 million debit card holders.
(Shanghai Daily January 18, 2008)
