Banking

CCB's HK unit to challenge HSBC in mutual fund sales

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-12-30 09:15
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HONG KONG - China Construction Bank Corp's Hong Kong unit targets at least 20 percent annual growth in revenue from selling investment products in the city, where the number of millionaires doubled last year, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. 

According to consumer banking head Huang Tao, China Construction Bank (Asia) Corp (CCB), the wholly owned subsidiary of China's second-largest lender, wants to become one of Hong Kong's five biggest sellers of mutual funds and other financial products.

It currently ranks sixth or seventh, he said.

"Wealth management is the area that we are strong at and the area that we want to grow," the report cited Huang as saying.

CCB (Asia) vies with Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc for wealthy clients in Hong Kong, which has the second-highest proportion of millionaire households after Singapore, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

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Huang said he plans to boost headcount at CCB (Asia)'s consumer banking unit by a third within the next five years to help gain market share.

Construction Bank bought CCB (Asia), formerly known as Bank of America (Asia) Ltd from Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp in 2006. According to the report, the unit's first-half profit more than tripled from a year earlier to HK$398 million ($51 million).