China's first bank-invested trust company is officially set up in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, on Sunday.

 

The new trust company is held by the Bank of Communications (BOCOM), China's fifth largest lender, and Hubei provincial finance department, which control 85 percent and 15 percent of the total shares respectively.

 

The BOCOM invested 1.2 billion yuan (about US$160 million) to buy the shares of the Hubei international trust and investment company, the first commercial bank investment in a trust company approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

 

Jin Dajian, chairman of the new company named "jiaoyin-guoxin", or BOCOM-International Trust, said the company would focus on "professional wealth management".

 

Jin called the establishment of the new trust company "a breakthrough for China's trust industry", given that the country's law on commercial banks, effective since 1995, did not allow commercial banks to make trust investment.

 

The regulation was not lifted until the end of last year, when the China Banking Regulatory Commission encouraged financial institutions, including commercial banks, to acquire trust companies.

 

The BOCOM, a large state-owned commercial bank, was established in 1908, and the Hubei international trust investment company was founded as a non-banking financial institution under Hubei provincial government in 1981.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)