ABN Amro opens Shanghai branch

DUTCH banking group ABN Amro has opened a branch in Shanghai to support its corporate clients in the region.

The largest retail bank in the Netherlands recently received regulatory approvals to operate a branch office in the Chinese city, some four years after it established a representative office there in April 2012.

ABN Amro's chairman of the managing board, Gerrit Zalm, said: "With a branch we are able to offer our clients a broader range of services and products. It also marks a further step in our selective international growth ambition."

ABN Amro's country executive for Greater China, Maureen Derooij, said: "China is an important market for our clients given the country's position as the leading global consumer of energy, as well as being the world's largest producer of commodities."

Netherlands is China's second-largest trade partner in the European Union, and ABN Amro has historically been a major source of trade finance between the countries.

In the Asia-Pacific, the bank provides services to corporate and private banking clients across the region from offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo. The branch in Shanghai will be overseen by Arthur Zou.