STANDARD Chartered Bank plans to expand its private banking business into 10 more mainland cities by 2010, Steven Richard Evans, head of private banking in China told Shanghai Daily today.

The London-based bank will double its number of client relationship managers around the world to 300 over the next 18 months, Evans said.

He also said he expects the same growth in China but declined to offer further details.

The bank today launched its private banking service in Shanghai while it also plans to issue credit cards on the mainland next year.

It also expressed interest in helping individual investors directly trade Hong Kong shares via mainland accounts.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange on August 20 approved a scheme to allow individual investors to trade Hong Kong shares via accounts opened at the Tianjin branch of Bank of China. But the details and timetable of the program has not been revealed.

Standard Chartered said in a half-year report that it has doubled its business income on the mainland so far this year, with pre-tax profit rising 30 percent to US$1.98 billion.