December 5th, China Construction Bank (CCB) Toronto Branch officially opened. Mr. Guo You, Chairman of Supervisory Board of CCB, Mr. Joe Oliver, Canadian Minister of Finance, Mr. Victor Oh, Senator of Canada, Mr. Fang Li, Chinese Consul General to Toronto,  Mr. Yu Benlin, Minister Counselor of Chinese embassy, as well as over 200 local guests from various sectors attended the celebration. Toronto Branch is the second branch of CCB in North America and the first branch opened by a Chinese bank in Canada, a breakthrough by the Bank in its presence in North America.

With a full banking license, CCB Toronto Branch will engage in commercial banking activities, including acceptance of deposit, trade finance, international settlement, syndicated loans, Canadian dollar clearing and treasury business.

Mr. Guo You, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CCB commented positively at the opening ceremony of the branch on the great progress in mutually-beneficial areas such as trade, investment, science and technology, energy, finance, education and tourism in recent years. In 2013, the trade volume between China and Canada reached USD54billion, an increase of 6%. Today, China is the second largest trade partner, export destination and source of import for Canada, which laid a good foundation for CCB’s future business development in Canada. CCB has attached great importance to Canadian market and has established correspondent bank relations with 13 local banks. With the guidance and supervision of Chinese and Canadian regulators, together with the support of CCB head office’s client resources and branch network, Toronto branch will operate in a prudent and compliant way, and build an entity with standard management, first-class service and outstanding reputation, providing secured, convenient, high-quality and high-efficiency financial services for its Chinese and Canadian

This year marks the 60th anniversary of CCB’s establishment. After 60 years of operation, CCB is now ranked as one of the top banks in the world with its assets and profits. As at the end of September, total assets of CCB group stood at USD2725.7 billion; annualized ROA and weighted average ROE stood at 1.58% and 22.14%; and the capital adequacy ratio and core tier-one capital ratio amounted to 14.53% and 11.65% respectively. In 2014, CCB was ranked the second place by The Banker among Top 1000 world banks by tier-one capital. In recent years, CCB has been accelerating efforts towards international development. With its overseas presence and business steadily expanding, CCB is able to offer comprehensive products through ever-growing service channels, which further strengthens its ability to serve global clients and compete in the international market. Up to present, CCB has established 21 tier-one entities outside mainland China, covering 18 countries and regions.