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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-11 11:40

Standard Chartered Bank, one of the first foreign banks to incorporate in China, is planning a 66 percent increase in staff and to expand its branches by a third by the end of the year.

"We are on track with our branch expansion, with 30 locations in 15 Chinese cities, and still plan to have about 40 locations by the year end, subject to the regulatory approvals," said group chief executive Peter Sands in a statement on the bank's mid-term business report.

The bank planned to recruit another 1,400 people to bring staff numbers in China to 3,500, Sands added.

Standard Chartered has opened an operations center in Tianjin, a municipality striving to become an economic center in north China.

Sands said Standard Chartered in China more than doubled its income in the first half, without giving details.

The bank's first-half operating income rose 28 percent to 5.2 billion US dollars and total assets jumped 25 percent to 297 billion dollars, the report revealed.

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The London-based bank, which does most of its business in Asia, and three other foreign-funded banks -- HSBC, Citibank and Bank of East Asia -- officially began business in China four months ago as the first locally incorporated overseas financial companies approved by China's banking regulator.

It means that the four banks can compete with their Chinese counterparts on an equal footing, analysts say.

Foreign banks were previously restricted to offering foreign-currency services to individuals, although they could provide both local and foreign-currency services to companies.

China fully opened its banking sector to foreign banks in December last year in line with its commitments to the World Trade Organization.