On August 3rd, an "Agreement on the Custody of Customer Transaction Settlement Funds” and an “Agreement on Comprehensive Business Cooperation” were signed between CCB and China Galaxy Securities Signed Co., Ltd. (“Galaxy Securities”) in Beijing.  Present in the signing ceremony were CCB Vice President Zhao Lin and Galaxy Securities CEO Xiao Shiqing.

During the signing ceremony, Messrs Zhao and Xiao pointed out that, in future, the two parties will further strengthen their bank-securities cooperation by benchmarking the management models and operational concepts of each other.  Further, they will actively search for new ways of cooperating, substantiate the contents of the cooperation, expand the areas of cooperation and enhance the connotative meaning of the cooperation.  Both parties vowed to fully leverage the advantages of this union between two giants and jointly open up new prospects for this bank-securities linkage.  The signing of the agreements means that, on top of the custody business for customer transaction settlement funds, the scope of cooperation will extend to areas such as collective asset management, investment financial products, bank cards, etc. and will signify the establishment of a strategic partnership relationship between CCB and Galaxy Securities.

CCB has a 52-year history of operating and developing, and is the first of the four major commercial banks in mainland China succeeded in getting listed overseas.  By the end of 2006, its market capitalisation had reached US$142.99 billion, propelling it to the top 10 listed banks in the world.  In addition to being the first bank introducing third-party custody of customer transaction settlement funds, CCB is also the first Chinese bank simultaneously offering third-party custody of customer transaction settlement funds in both the A-share and B-share markets.  By doing so, it has created a competitive advantage in the market and consequently, in this business, it is leading its competitors in terms of the number of participating securities firms and in the number of custody customers.  What is more, since CCB has always been embracing an operational concept of focussing on customers, it has been relentless in implementing reforms, strengthening product innovations and enhancing service quality.  It is on course in realising its strategic vision of “Staying at the frontline of modernising the Chinese economy and become a world-class bank.”

Galaxy Securities is a major nationwide securities firm providing a comprehensive range of services.  Its brokerage business is in a leading position among its peers: since 2000, its brokerage business has been ranked number one among all security firms in China six times in terms of transaction volumes in stocks and funds, and four times in terms transaction volume in bonds.  In investment banking, it possesses the capability of underwriting super and mega deals.  In particular, in providing quality financial consultancy services to the financial service sector, the transportation and shipping sector and to super large-scale state-owned H-share enterprises returning to issue A-shares, it has a captured market and its performance has been outstanding.