A reported plan to split up the Agricultural Bank of China met with strong resistance from some staff and experts yesterday.

 

The bank, the only one of the Big Four that has yet to kick off restructuring reforms to become really commercialized and publicly listed, may be split into provincial banks to improve efficiency.

 

That was according to a report in the China Business Post on Friday.

 

The split was initiated by the central bank, which oversees the restructuring of the Big Four, the report said.

 

The bank's headquarters in Beijing may be replaced by separate headquarters in provinces, which, under the leadership of provincial governments, will supervise local branches.

 

The report also said a localization move would reduce the financial burden for the central government, which is supposed to help the bank deal with bad loans left over by the planned economy and, in so doing, clear the way for a public listing.

 

Neither the central bank nor the agricultural bank confirmed the plan yesterday. A spokeswoman at the agricultural bank said she had not seen any official document relating to the split proposal.

 

Senior officials at the agricultural bank said earlier this year that the bank had submitted a restructuring proposal to the State Council. But instead of a spin-off, the bank suggested an overall listing, putting the reduction of the bad loans as the top priority, to be followed by a financial reshuffle. The bank was also said to be in talks with potential foreign strategic investors.

 

"The news of a possible split gave us a blow," a member of staff at the agricultural bank's headquarters in Beijing said yesterday. "We cannot accept it." If the plan is implemented, the bank's image would be damaged and competitiveness eroded, said the staff member, who preferred to remain anonymous.

 

"A major advantage of our bank is the big national network. If that network is broken or split into small ones, then we will lose big clients. And what is the difference between our bank and city banks and rural co-operatives?" she said.

 

Experts also said the idea of splitting the national bank into regional ones should take into consideration the heavy cost of redundancies and the reallocation of labor and bank units.

 

He Ziyun, a professor of banking at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, said the split of a big bank like the Agricultural Bank of China goes against current trends.

 

Now that many city banks and cooperatives have merged or are seeking partners to become larger and stronger, it would be unwise to split up a big bank, which would lower the bank's reputation and competitiveness, he said.

 

The reshuffle will also affect the morale of staff and lead to unnecessary chaos, which will ultimately slow down the pace of restructuring, he said.

 

(China Daily May 23, 2006)