外资银行去年在华业绩难敌中国同行

　　很多在华外资银行让人得以一窥其财务业绩，这还是有史以来第一次。不过它们的成绩并不是很好看。

　　据新发布的报告，它们去年在中国市场取得的利润大幅下滑，而中资同行的利润却实现了双位数增长。很多外资银行把中国视为实现自身增长的推动器，但其成绩说明，它们在这个市场的开拓之路还面临着不少挑战。

　　Bloomberg这是汇丰银行在中国的第100个分行，位于上海。外资银行一般都没有报告过它们在华业务的业绩，新数据是由各行过去几个月用中文发布的，没有正式通告，多数情况下都是因为中国的银行业监管机构在7月份发布通知，要求它们更加严格地遵守信息披露规则。

　　毕马威（KPMG）会计师事务所的分析师在最近的一份报告中对这些数据进行了编辑整理。

　　根据这份报告，汇丰控股（HSBC Holdings PLC）中国子公司去年的税后利润为人民币7.18亿元（合1.065亿美元），较2008年下降60%.汇丰是中国最大的外资银行，网点超过100家。渣打银行（Standard Chartered PLC）的中国子公司报告利润4.23亿元，下降34%，摩根大通（J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.）子公司利润为6，600万元，下降21%.

　　这些公开数据只适用于各行的中国分支机构，不包括投资中资银行取得的收益、帮助中资企业海外上市获得的承销费等项目。

　　花旗集团（Citigroup Inc.）等少数在中国拥有分支机构的外资银行没有公开发表相关报告。

　　长期以来，外资银行在中国扩大业务都难以取得规模，因为监管层限制了它们的本地机构可以在多大程度上利用海外母公司的资源。

　　这些限制措施有助于中国银行业监管机构隔离中国的金融系统，使之免受金融危机的影响，但它也把外资银行局限在金融行业的边缘位置，而在此同时，中资银行按某些指标来看却已经跻身世界前列。

　　去年其他市场的银行业利润同样大幅下降。但在中国2009年增长8.7%、成为全世界少有的几个亮点之一的情况下，在华外资银行却未能利用中国活跃的经济增长获利，这跟本地竞争对手强劲得多的业绩形成了鲜明的对比。

　　按资产规模计算，中国工商银行（Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.）是中国最大的银行，去年它录得净利润1，286.5亿元，增长16%.中国建设银行（Construction Bank Corp.）利润为1，067.6亿元，增长15%.

　　在很大程度上，外资银行利润下滑源于贷款收入的减少，因为贷款利率和存款利率的利差收窄。中资银行凭借贷款规模的大幅增长弥补了利差的下降，2009年新增贷款较上年增加了一倍左右。

　　外资银行的借贷更趋放缓，部分原因来自其海外总部的压力。很多情况下，这就意味着将客户拱手让给更愿意放贷的中国银行。

　　外资银行说2009年不景气的数字并未打击他们对中国的兴趣。

　　汇丰银行（中国）发言人承认，2009年是充满挑战的一年，在很大程度上是因为低利率，但他说汇丰仍继续在中国投资，并且中国仍然是汇丰“新兴市场战略”的中心。

　　渣打银行（Standard Chartered）中国分部首席财务长菲尔德（Joanna Fielding）说，净息差缩小对渣打的业绩造成了不良影响，中国出口的减弱也是一个原因，但是尽管困难重重，我们将继续把眼光放向更长远的未来。

　　由于全球金融危机已经有所缓解，银行在中国的表现可能在今年有所好转，但是可能回不到2008年的水平。

　　中国正要求外资银行的中国分支到明年年底将存贷比降至75%，从而将对他们的要求与本地银行保持一致。

　　存贷比限制对本地银行来说不算很大的约束，因为据去年的新增信贷数据显示，他们拥有巨大的存款基数。

　　毕马威会计事务所的报告显示，但是外资银行在中国拥有的国内存款仍然十分贫乏，部分原因是建立零售网络所需的许可证的审核速度太慢，并且很多银行的存贷比在去年年底超过了150%.这将对他们今年扩大贷款造成困难。

　　7月，中国银监会要求包括在中国注册的外资银行在内的所有商业银行将年度业绩公布在各自的网站上。

　　银监会的文件指出外资银行对法规的履行率很低，并要求他们立即改变这种状况。

　　毕马威的报告涉及到25家外资银行的中国分支，其中大部分数据都公布在各银行网站上，但很多时候这些数据很难找到。部分银行直接将数据交给了毕马威，还未将其公布在网站上。

　　In China， Foreign Banks Lag In Profits For the first time， many foreign banks in China are offering a peek at their financial performance there， and the picture isn't pretty.

　　Their earnings in China plunged last year， even as their Chinese counterparts posted double-digit gains， according to new reports， illustrating the challenges foreign lenders face making inroads in a market many of them have targeted as a driver of growth.

　　Foreign banks typically haven't reported results for their Chinese operations. The new figures were published by the banks in Chinese， without announcement， over the past several months， in most cases after China's banking regulator circulated a notice in July demanding they abide more strictly by disclosure rules.

　　The numbers were compiled by analysts at accounting firm KPMG in a recent report.

　　According to the report， profit after taxes at the Chinese unit of HSBC Holdings PLC， the largest foreign bank in China with more than 100 outlets， fell 60% last year from 2008 to 718 million yuan （$106.5 million）。 Standard Chartered PLC's China unit reported a decline in profit of 34%， to 423 million yuan， and profit at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s unit fell 21% to 66 million yuan.

　　The published numbers apply only to the banks' Chinese subsidiaries and don't include items such as gains on investments in Chinese lenders or underwriting fees for overseas offerings by Chinese companies.

　　A few major overseas banks with local units， including Citigroup Inc.， haven't publicly issued their reports.

　　Foreign banks have long struggled to build business of any scale in China， with regulators limiting the degree that their local operations can rely on resources from overseas parents.

　　Those restrictions helped China's banking regulator insulate the country's financial system from the fallout of the financial crisis， but it has also confined foreign banks to a marginal role in the financial sector， even as China's local banks have grown to rank among the largest banks in the world by some measures.

　　Bank profits fell sharply in other markets， too， last year. But the failure of foreign banks in China to profit from the country's robust economic growth， which at 8.7% in 2009 was one of the few bright spots in the global economy， contrasts with much stronger performance by local rivals.

　　Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.， China's biggest lender by assets， reported an increase in net profit of 16% last year to 128.65 billion yuan. China Construction Bank Corp.'s profit rose 15% to 106.76 billion yuan.

　　In large part， the drop in foreign-bank profits was led by a decline in income on loans as the gap between lending and deposit rates narrowed. China's banks compensated for the drop with a huge increase in volume， roughly doubling the amount of new loans issued in 2009 from a year earlier.

　　Foreign banks lent more slowly， in part because of pressure from their overseas headquarters. In many cases， this meant losing clients to Chinese banks more willing to lend.

　　Foreign banks said the weak numbers for 2009 aren't deterring their interest in China.

　　An HSBC China spokesman acknowledged that 2009 was a 'challenging year，' in large part because of low interest rates， but said that it has continued to invest in the country and that China remains 'at the center of HSBC's emerging-markets strategy.'

　　Joanna Fielding， chief financial officer at Standard Chartered's China unit， said narrower net-interest margins took their toll on the bank's bottom line last year， as did the weakening of China's exports， but 'despite these challenges， we continue to build for the longer term.'

　　Bank performance in China is likely to recover somewhat this year， as the effects of the global financial crisis have eased， but they may not return to 2008 levels.

　　China is requiring local units of foreign banks to reduce their ratio of loans to deposits to 75% by the end of next year， bringing them in line with the requirement for local lenders.

　　The cap isn't much of a constraint on local banks， thanks to their huge deposit bases， as last year's expansion of credit shows.

　　But foreign banks still have fairly anemic domestic deposits in China， in part because of the slow pace of approval for licenses needed to build retail networks， and many of them had loan-to-deposit ratios above 150% at the end of last year， according to KPMG's report. That will make it difficult for them to expand lending this year.

　　In July， the China Banking Regulatory Commission ordered all commercial banks， including locally incorporated foreign banks， to post their annual results for a given year on their websites.

　　The regulator's document complained about the low rate of compliance among foreign banks and called on them to remedy the situation immediately.

　　Much of the data in the KPMG report， which covers the local units of 25 foreign banks， is publicly available on the banks' websites， but in many cases the numbers are difficult to locate. Some banks that haven't yet posted the data publicly gave their numbers directly to KPMG.