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)