CHINA LOOKS TO FEND OFF PRESSURE BY US BROKERS

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China is resisting mounting pressure from the US banking industry for a speedy and substantial opening of its domestic brokerage industry, a sector that has become increasingly lucrative with the boom in China's stock market.

The dispute is the most intractable in a series of financial services issues on the table at next week's top-level talks in Washington between the US and China.

Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, and Wu Yi, a vice-premier, will lead teams from both countries at the so-called “Strategic Economic Dialogue”, a twice-yearly forum held for the first time late last year.
Mr Paulson has pushed China hard for further opening of its banking, insurance, funds management and brokerage sectors, on top of the partial liberalisation agreed to by Beijing when China joined the World Trade Organisation.

US investment banks including Citigroup, JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch, are among those lobbying Mr Paulson, a former Goldman Sachs chief, because the securities brokerage industry won little access to China in the WTO deal.

Gaby Abdelnour, JPMorgan chief executive for Asia Pacific, says new entrants can help reform the sector: “Foreign banks would bring intellectual capital to the sector, such as technological and organisational skills.”

The US banks' position has hardened in recent months as trading on domestic exchanges has soared to record levels just as Chinese authorities have been pushing local companies to list at home instead of offshore.

Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS have struck deals to gain a foothold in China, but their operations are either tightly constrained or do not allow them management control.

Following the UBS tie-up with Beijing Securities, endorsed last August, Chinese regulators said they would not consider any further deals involving foreign banks for another year.

In spite of some support within China for a more liberalised financial services market, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has shown no inclination to open up the brokerage sector.

“The Chinese are concerned that if they let foreigners into the broking sector too quickly, they will kiss goodbye to the domestic industry,” says Tim Ferdinand, a senior executive of CLSA, the Hong Kong-based broker that has a limited brokerage joint venture with China's Fortune Securities.

The CSRC has floated a plan to allow a number of local brokers to list and use the proceeds to repay their government owners, which have recently helped to recapitalise them. They would allow foreigners to take stakes of up to 20 per cent as strategic investors.




中国正顶着美国银行业方面越来越大的压力。由于目前中国股市一片繁荣，证券经纪业务的利润日益丰厚，美国银行业要求中国政府提高国内证券经纪行业的开放速度和程度。

下周，中美两国将在华盛顿进行高层会晤。届时，上述问题将是此次会议日程上一系列有关金融服务业问题中最棘手的一项。

美国财长汉克•保尔森(Hank Paulson)和中国国务院副总理吴仪将分别率领双方代表团参加第二轮美中“战略经济对话”。这一“对话”每年举行两次，首次对话于去年底举行。

保尔森一直大力敦促中国政府，在兑现加入世贸组织(WTO)时所承诺的部分开放措施的基础上，进一步开放中国的银行、保险、基金管理和证券经纪行业。

花旗集团(Citigroup)、JP摩根(JPMorgan)和美林(Merrill Lynch)等美国投资银行纷纷对保尔森进行游说，因为中国在加入WTO的协议中，在开放证券经纪行业方面没有做出什么承诺。保尔森是高盛(Goldman Sachs)前任首席执行官。

JP摩根亚太区首席执行官戈比•阿伯德鲁(Gaby Abdelnour)表示，新进入者有助于推动该行业的改革，“外国银行能够给该行业带来知识资本，比如技术和组织技能等。”

最近数月，由于中国有关部门鼓励内地企业在国内而非海外上市，中国内地证券交易所的业务量飙升至创纪录水平，因此美国各投行的立场也日趋强硬。

高盛、摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)和瑞银集团(UBS)已通过组建合资公司，在中国获得了立足之处，但它们的业务要么受到严格限制，要么未能获得管理控制权。

去年8月，中国监管机构批准了瑞银集团与北京证券(Beijing Securities)的合资协议，但随后表示，未来一年内不会再考虑任何外资银行入股内地证券公司的交易。

尽管中国国内一些人支持进一步开放金融服务市场，但中国证监会(CSRC)并未表达开放证券经纪行业的意愿。

总部位于香港的经纪公司里昂证券(CLSA)高管傅德礼(Tim Ferdinand)表示：“他们担心，如果让外国证券公司过于迅速地进入证券经纪行业，那么国内证券公司就会消失。”里昂证券与中国财富证券(China's Fortune Securities)拥有一家合资证券公司。

中国证监会日前实施了一项计划，允许多家国内证券公司上市，并利用所募集的资金，偿还最近帮助它们重组的政府债权人。证监会允许外国证券公司作为战略投资者持有最高20％的股权。