RadioBanter - JPMorgan injects $400 million into China unit, eyes expansion

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorg...22297.html?l=1
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYS:JPM - News) has injected
2.5 billion yuan ($394.08 million) into its China unit, the latest
foreign bank to beef up its Chinese operations.

Foreign banks, including HSBC (LSE:HSBA.L - News) and Singapore's DBS
Group (SES:D05.SI - News), have either injected or are planning to
pump in capital into their China units which are expected to grow
rapidly over the coming years even as growth in the world's second-
biggest economy comes off the boil.

"The additional capital will better position the bank in the evolving
regulatory environment and cement our commitment to clients in China,"
Zili Shao, Chairman and chief executive of J.P. Morgan China, said in
a statement on Monday.

"The capital will be used to expand the bank's branch network, develop
products, increase corporate lending, and recruit employees," Shao
added.

The injection brings the registered capital of the locally
incorporated unit to 6.5 billion yuan.

The local unit, which conducts commercial banking businesses in China,
has also received regulatory approval to open its 7th branch in China
in Suzhou, west of Shanghai, the statement said.

JPMorgan has a separate investment banking joint venture in China.

HSBC 0005.HK injected 2.8 billion yuan into its China unit last
year, even as it laid off several hundred investment bankers in
London, Hong Kong and elsewhere as part of its jobs cull to save
billions of dollars.

DBS, Southeast Asia's largest bank, said in April it is planning to
make an injection of 2.3 billion yuan into its China unit to increase
its network and staff, and upgrade infrastructure and other technology
platforms.

($1 = 6.3439 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)