The city had 53 foreign banks and 71 representative offices for foreign banks and non-banking financial institutions by the end of November last year.

Shenzhen: This city has the second highest amount of outstanding loans by foreign banks in China. Their combined assets also ranked second in the country.

Foreign banks' outstanding amounts of renminbi loans reached 8.8 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) by the end of June last year, and the outstanding amount of foreign exchange loans reached US$2.3 billion.

Beijing: The city's status as the country's political, cultural and financial centre makes it attractive to foreign banks.

The number of foreign bank branches in the city is the third highest in China. But the number of foreign bank representative offices ranked first. There were 19 foreign banks setting up branches in the city by November 15 last year.

An additional 98 representative offices have applied or are preparing to become bank branches.

Tianjin: Foreign banks in the city are taking a greater share of foreign exchange deposits and loans, as well as international settlements.

Foreign banks' outstanding amount of foreign exchange deposits stood at US$650 million by the end of June last year, accounting for 18 percent of the total.

Dalian: The city is home to foreign banks, mainly from Japan and the South Korea.

Xiamen: In addition to deposits and loans, competition between domestic and foreign banks on international settlement also became fierce.

Foreign banks' outstanding amount of deposits accounted for 21 percent of the total market and their outstanding amount of loans accounted for 51 percent of the total by the end of 2001.

Guangzhou: Hong Kong-based banks focused their attention on expansion of the city's banking business and retailing business due to its proximity to the special administrative region.

(China Daily March 10, 2003)