CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, Credit Agricole SA's regional share trading arm, said yesterday it plans to start offering broking products on the Chinese mainland in the first quarter of next year through its local China Euro Securities Ltd venture.

"We plan to aggressively expand our business in China, particularly onshore," CLSA China Chairman Wu Changgen said in Hong Kong.

Options being considered included adding staff to China Euro and CLSA's investment banking units in mainland as United States securities firms likely reduced head count to cope with falling revenue and their domestic financial crisis, Wu said.

Five-year-old China Euro, 33 percent owned by CLSA, in June won approval from mainland regulators to trade Chinese shares, Bloomberg News reported. Its broking license was the first granted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission since rules set out in December allowed overseas-invested firms that had been operating for five years to expand their scope.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc are among global rivals coveting access to China's stock market, where daily turnover has averaged about US$10 billion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc and UBS AG won approval for ventures that were established before the regulatory framework was introduced.

China Euro would also start research coverage of 100 companies whose yuan-denominated A-shares were traded on mainland's stock market, adding to the 38 Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong and mainland now covered by CLSA, Wu said.

CLSA Chairman Rob Morrison yesterday said the global credit slump had weakened the "moral authority" of US financial companies to "preach" about the need for overseas markets to deregulate and improve transparency.