Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs -> China Law Blog

International Law

: China Law Blog

China Banking: I Have Two Words For You.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

A year or so ago, I was talking with a good friend of mine who has a fairly high level position with one of the big American banks that has spent huge money buying into Chinese banks. I was saying I could not understand why American banks were so willing to put so much into China's banks, particularly when it would be impossible to achieve any sort of clarity regarding their bad loan risks. (Please note this was before the sub-prime mess and so I at that point actually viewed banks as generally somewhat conservative with their money). His response was, "Dan, I have two words for you: credit cards." Yes, I thought. The Shanghai Daily reports that the number of credit cards in China has nearly doubled in the past year. Nearly doubled. Had my friend been a bit more literary and succinct, he would have said, "Dan, I have one word for you: plastic. [video]"

Full post as published by China Law Blog on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).