It says a lot about China’s size that a lender devoted to just one city can have $134bn in assets – even if that city is Shanghai. It says even more about China’s credit boom. In any case, Bank of Shanghai’s $90bn in customer deposits has appeal for Santander, which has just bought an 8 per cent stake in the Chinese lender from HSBC. Shanghai grannies’ savings will become more attractive if access to other forms of funding become constrained by a draft rule aimed at shrinking interbank credit markets, as bankers worry they will.
一家城市銀行——哪怕這個城市是上海——就擁有1340億美元資產，既體現出中國之大，更說明了中國的信貸繁榮狀況。無論如何，上海銀行(Bank of Shanghai)的900億美元客戶存款對桑坦德銀行(Santander)構成了巨大的吸引力，後者剛剛從滙豐(HSBC)手中收購了上海銀行8%的股份。上海大媽們的存款很可能因爲中國剛出爐的一份法規草案而變得更加誘人。這一法規旨在削弱銀行同業信貸市場，銀行家們擔心它會限制銀行使用（除儲蓄之外的）其它融資形式。