Australia’s ANZ receives currency license in China

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, the country’s fourth-largest bank, said on Monday it had received a license to conduct retail business in the Yuan in China, making it the first Australian bank to do so.

ANZ said in statement the new license would allow its subsidiary ANZ China, to provide customers with local currency deposits, mortgages, bancassurance and wealth management products and services. ANZ wants to become a regional Asian lender along the lines of HSBC and Standard Chartered and China is a big part of that strategy.

According to Reuters, ANZ has stakes of 20% in both China’s Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank and Bank of Tianjin.