Nihao, New York

Chinese lenders open branches in the Big Apple.

When the credit crisis erupted a year ago, some Americans worried that China’s big banks might buy up capital-starved U.S. lenders. That hasn’t happened, but the Chinese are still coming.

Last month Beijing-based Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s largest bank by market capitalization, and Shenzhen-based China Merchants Bank, the country’s sixth-largest lender, opened branches in New York. It’s the first time Chinese banks have opened branches in New York since the 1991 passing of the Foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act, which required solid regulatory regimes in the banks’ home countries. Undeterred by the troubled U.S. economy, the two banks are thinking long term and seeking to serve the global ambitions of major Chinese companies. “We are following our clients to overseas markets,” Ma Weihua, president of China Merchants, tells II. The bank is also in preliminary talks to open a subsidiary in London. “As China becomes an interlinked part of the world’s financial markets, we must internationalize our business.” China Merchants agreed in September to pay $2.48 billion for a 53.12 percent stake in Hong Kong’s Wing Lung Bank, but Ma says he isn’t shopping in the U.S. “Acquisitions need the right timing, place and price to work.”

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