STANDARD Chartered Bank doubled its work force on the Chinese mainland during an "incredible and significant" year, the bank said yesterday.
The bank boosted its employee numbers on the mainland to more than 4,000 from 2,100 last year and increased its network from 23 to 38 on the mainland. Automatic teller machine numbers will be boosted to 190 this year from last year's figure of just over 100.
Standard Chartered, which generates two-thirds of its profit in Asia, has launched more than 80 products under the consumer banking sector in 2007.
"The year of 2007 has been an incredible and significant year for us," said Katherine Tsang, the chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank (China) Ltd.
The bank has already doubled its revenue and client base on the consumer banking sector.
Standard Chartered is among the first batch of overseas banks to be locally incorporated on the Chinese mainland in April to offer unlimited yuan services to Chinese. Chinese authorities require overseas banks to incorporate locally if they want to fully tap the market.
Otherwise they can only accept retail yuan deposits of more than one million yuan (US$135,135), effectively barring them from the big pool of middle class who can't afford such large deposits.