The China Banking Regulatory Commission gave approval Tuesday to the establishment of China Construction Bank Corporation and China Construction Bank Group Inc., a bank spokesman announced Wednesday.

The move is part of the restructuring of China Construction Bank, one of the country's Big Four commercial banks and the pilot project in the ongoing financial system reform.

China Construction Bank Corporation will continue to operate the institution's commercial banking business, including its domestic and foreign currency deposits, loans, banking cards and clearance, the spokesman said. Plans call for it to make an initial public offering at an as-yet-undecided future date.

The business names, trademarks, Internet domain names and service call numbers of China Construction Bank and its branches will remain unchanged.

China Construction Bank Group will be a shareholder in the corporation, but will not directly operate the commercial banking business.

The spokesman said the two would be officially established in 90 days.

"The establishment of the two companies indicates that China Construction Bank's shareholding reform has made an important stride forward," he said.

China Construction Bank, which won a US$22.5 billion bailout from the central government in late December, was chosen by as a pilot project to turn it into a joint stock bank.

Early on in the restructuring, bank President Zhang Enzhao was widely quoted as saying the bank would be listed simultaneously on the stock markets in New York, Hong Kong and the mainland this year or next. But in a press conference in April, Zhang said the time and venue of the bank's planned listing had yet to be decided and would take place "when internal and external conditions are ripe."

The bank is wooing foreign corporate investment.

"Our goal is to establish a modern shareholding commercial bank that will make us a competitive heavyweight in the global financial market," said Zhang.

During the first quarter, the bank earned 16.0 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) in operating profit, an increase of 32.4 percent from a year ago.

At the end of March, the bank's non-performing loan ratio was 8.8 percent, a drop of 0.35 percentage point from the beginning of the year.

(China Daily June 10, 2004)