OREANDA-NEWS. December 07, 2012. China Construction Bank (CCB) is officially launching its grand opening of Melbourne Branch in Australia. Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of CCB, Mr Furong Zhang and Executive Vice President of CCB, Mr Zheyi Hu attend this ceremony, reported the press-centre of CCB.

The Chinese Acting Consul General in Melbourne, Mr Fengwen Huang, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Parliament House Victoria, Honourable Ken Smith, State Treasurer of Victoria, Honourable Kim Wells and about 300 distinguish guests from various industries and sectors in Australia attend this special event.

As a sub-branch of CCB Sydney Branch, the strategic focus of CCB Melbourne will be on marketing and client relationship support, which consists of exploring and improving wholesale banking services in Victoria, such as commercial loan and deposits, trade finance and services, foreign exchange trading and so forth. At the same time, CCB Melbourne Branch will be actively promoting financial and consultancy services to high net worth clients. With CCB Group’s strong financial strength, innovative financial products and global network supports, CCB’s goal in Australia is to provide value added financial services to its clients.

It has been 40 years since Australia and China first established its diplomatic relationship and the two countries have continued to enjoy a much closer tie both politically and economically since then. In the first half of 2012, the bilateral trade between Australia-China has recorded at USD60bil, an increase of 12.8% as compared to the corresponding period. China has continues to become Australia’s largest trading partner, both in import and export.  The Australia-China future relationship will continue to strengthen in term of trade, financial services and culture which will benefit CCB in expanding its business opportunities. Currently, CCB has established corresponding bank relationships with 14 Australian local Banks. Since the incorporation of CCB Sydney Branch in 2010, the branch has successfully implemented business development strategy, “to follow and deepen ties with customers, and develop the local market”. 

The Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of CCB, Mr Furong Zhang, stated Australia is an important target market for CCB’s overseas business development program. Within the 5 years transitory period, CCB Sydney Branch has completed three important milestones of transformation, from a representative office to 2 branches, proving CCB has full confidence in the Australian market. Through the establishment of CCB in Melbourne, we hope to extend our business coverage, promote business and service capability in serving Australia-China clients in a highly efficient manner and to continue to facilitate the financial cooperation and bilateral trade between the two countries.

Today, CCB is one of the Largest leading commercial banks and one the most vibrant and reputable banks in China, providing strong, innovative and comprehensive banking services, particularly in wholesale, retail, and investment banking areas. As at September 2012, the total assets of CCB stood at USD2,110.5bil with net profit of USD25.2bil recorded in the same period. Annualized return on average asset recorded at 1.65%, while annualized return on average equity is at 24.18%. In addition, CCB is among the market leaders in  term of risk management, servicing capability and profitability within the Chinese domestic banking industry.

Currently, CCB maintains overseas branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Seoul, New York, Ho Chi Minh City, Sydney (with Melbourne sub-branch), two overseas representative offices in Taipei and Moscow, three wholly owned overseas subsidiaries including CCB Asia, CCB International and CCB London. In 2012, CCB has been awarded by the Banker’s magazine as the top 10 brands out of the top 500 banks globally and ranked number one in domestic Chinese banking industry.