Germany’s Commerzbank says it is planning to increase its corporate banking business volume in China by one-fifth in 2011. That is more than twice as fast as the 8.2% at which the bank’s economists have predicted China’s economy will grow. The bank also expects its small and medium-size enterprise (SME, or Mittelstandsbank) business to grow by 10% per annum.
According to Michael Kotzbauer, regional board member of Asia at Commerzbank, there are three aspects driving the bank’s growth ambitions in China. “From a macro point of view, we are building on the strong economic performance of China and Germany as the main growth drivers in their respective economic regions,” said Kotzbauer. “Underlined by strong economic ties in terms of exports and imports, we believe that the macroeconomic environment will support our cross-border strategy in the long-run.”
The bank will focus on German and Asian cross-border business, and will also invest heavily in transaction banking products to provide a solid foundation for further growth in 2011, he said.
In a press release, Kotzbauer said that initial successes from this international strategy were already emerging. “After the implementation of our focused cross-border strategy two years ago, we saw the number of clients increasing by roughly 20% in 2010. Together with the very positive feedback from our German and Asian customers alike, we strongly believe that this increased visibility of Commerzbank as the German-Asian cross-border bank is the basis for further growth in the region.”
Commerzbank is also positioning itself as the strategic international partner for its German customers, said Kotzbauer, noting that its German SME client base in China increased by about 20% in 2010. The bank is planning to maintain this growth with the acquisition of new customers, partly through its relationship managers and product specialists working closely with clients to develop solutions, he said.
“With this client-centric sales approach underlined by our cross-border strategy, we have received very good feedback from existing and new customers alike,” Kotzbauer said. “Our focus customers are typically German customers in Asia or Asian companies who want to set up operations especially in Germany.”
Commerzbank has been conducting business in Asia for 50 years opening a representative office in Beijing 30 years ago. It has 60 sites in more than 50 countries and serves about 14 million private clients and one million businesses and corporate clients worldwide.
