The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and CITIC Industrial Bank began offering limited foreign exchange services on April 1, People Daily reported on April 2, 2002.
The extension of foreign exchange services to the new banks ends a decade-long monopoly of such services by the State-owned Bank of China (BOC).
ICBC's new foreign exchange services are limited to 14 categories of domestic applicants for purposes including overseas travels and overseas studies, the paper said.
A total of 64 branches of the bank in Beijing and the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu will provide the new service, the report said.
CITIC Industrial Bank is offering foreign exchange services in Beijing, Fuzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
CITIC Industrial Bank is a subsidiary of China International Trust & Investment Corp, which owns 55.08 percent of CITIC Ka Wah Bank as well as a 28.4 percent of HK-listed CITIC Pacific Ltd.
The extension of domestic foreign exchange services to the two banks was a response to new competition by foreign banks offering limited foreign exchange services, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Last month China branches of Citigroup Inc's Citibank and the Bank of East Asia Ltd received licenses to provide foreign currency services to Chinese citizens.
Previous foreign bank branches were limited to providing foreign currency transactions to mainland-based foreign companies.
However, China's World Trade Organization agreements require it to gradually open its financial sector to foreign competition by the end of 2006.
(China Daily April 02, 2002)
