BNY Mellon awarded banking licence in Beijing

Bank of New York Mellon has been authorised by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to set up a banking branch in Beijing. BNY Mellon received a licence for its Shanghai branch in 1999.

The licence allows BNY Mellon to provide banking services to its institutional clients and will broaden the range of local and global capabilities it can offer in China, but the firm does not intend to provide any retail banking services.

Larry Chen, previously chief representative of the Beijing representative office, has assumed the role of general manager of the Beijing branch. 

BNY Mellon said in a statement that it plans to expand its Beijing and Shanghai operations and increase its local headcount in the future as it looks to build or acquire complementary local capabilities. The company currently has approximately 150 employees located in Shanghai and Beijing and plans to increase this by an additional 70 people during the next three years as its business grows.

"We believe China has a very exciting future and we intend to make significant investments in our on-the-ground resources to enable us to bring our world-class solutions to Chinese institutions," said Christopher Sturdy, BNY Mellon's chairman of Asia-Pacific. "Becoming a branch in Beijing is an important step in enhancing our services and achieving our vision to become one of the leading international financial services firms in China."

"The Chinese authorities have shown that they are serious about their goal of turning China into a leading force in the financial markets, approving a raft of measures that give investors more sophisticated investment options earlier this year," added Chen. "Our commitment and increased investment in China reflects their ambitions. We have the solutions Chinese institutions are looking for to meet their goals of achieving positive returns within a transparent and efficient infrastructure which mitigates risk."

BNY Mellon has strong and historical relationships with banks in China, having been active in the region for more than 90 years. It opened its first office in mainland China in 1994. Its business was originally primarily focused around its treasury, trade and payments services. This has evolved to also include a wide variety of other products and services such as asset management, custody, fund administration, depositary receipts and foreign exchange.