Bank of Communications expands in the land down under

The Bank of Communications announced yesterday had just opened a new branch in the southern Australian city of Melbourne as part of its global expansion.

The move marks the state-owned commercial lender’s 22nd overseas institution and the third branch in Australia — after  Sydney in 2011 and Brisbane in 2015.

Hou Weidong, vice president of the Shanghai-based bank, said at the opening ceremony that the establishment of the Melbourne branch will provide a foothold better explore the Australian market and offer more convenient and comprehensive high-quality financial services to both Chinese and Australian corporate customers there.

Bank of Communications, China’s fifth largest commercial bank, added that it aims to promote all-round cooperation between China and Australia under the framework of the Sino-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

To that end, it will offer financial services and solutions in areas such as multi-currency settlement, trade financing, corporate loans and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, aiming to help the two sides achieve win-win cooperation in economic development and trade investment.

As of end-November, the Bank of Communications had set up 21 overseas banking institutions spanning 16 countries and regions around the world, with 65 overseas outlets.

And the bank said that its overseas assets exceeded 1 trillion yuan (US$150 billion) as of end-September. 

This accounted formore than 10 percent of the group's total assets.