United Bank Ltd. (UBL), the second largest bank in Pakistan, opened a representative office in Beijing Thursday, its first in China.
"The Beijing representative office is a signal of UBL's efforts to participate in the trade and investment flows between China and Pakistan," Atif R. Bokhari, president and chief executive officer of UBL said at a press conference.
The office will establish correspondent relationships with Chinese banks and facilitate investment and trade between Chinese investors and UBL customers in its network countries.
UBL signed a cooperation agreement with the China Development Bank (CDB) during the press conference, focusing on details of cooperation and the correspondent relationship between the two.
The partners were still seeking a specific cooperation project, Liu Jian'an, vice governor of CDB, told Xinhua.
UBL, which has more than 1,000 branches globally, saw its total assets rise 25 percent in 2007 to 881.9 billion U.S. dollars. Its international operations contributed more than 20 percent of its profits.