Free Republic

The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China's biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company. Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia. The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States. ICBC has been the most aggressive of China's "big four" banks in expanding overseas. According...

Rumours trigger bank run in Hong Kong By Justine Lau and Tom Mitchell in Hong Kong Published: September 24 2008 15:36 | Last updated: September 24 2008 19:16 Thousands of panicked depositors queued outside Bank of East Asia’s branches across Hong Kong on Wednesday to withdraw their life-savings on rumours that the lender was in financial trouble. The territory has seen only one other bank run since its return to mainland China in 1997, when the International Bank of Asia saw large withdrawals in November of that year. David Li, BEA chairman and chief executive, said: “Some people are spreading...