Source: China Daily

As economic activity grows between China and the US, Guangdong province is poised to play a vital role in the expanding financial services sector that is emerging between the two nations, participants told a session of the China (Guangdong)-US (New York) Economic and Trade Cooperation conference in New York.

Ramond Yang, president of Guangdong Finance Investment (Holding) Corp Ltd, said increasing business activity between the province and the US will open up opportunities for financial services.

"Guangdong is attractive for US financial institutions to establish offices and to make capital investments in China," he said on May 13.

Morris Li is the executive director and president of China Guangfa Bank based in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and its largest city with 13 million people.

Li said financial services are complementary to the burgeoning economic trade and investment between China and the US.

"Financial services can provide impetus for additional cooperation in areas like cross-border financial activity," Li said.

He also urged greater collaboration among stock exchanges in the US, Europe and China, especially in corporate governance and anti money-laundering programs.

Earlier this year, Citigroup Inc agreed to sell its 20 percent stake in Guangfa Bank to China Life Insurance Co, the nation’s biggest life-insurance company by premiums, for about $3 billion.

Global merger-and-acquisition activity drew the attention of Chris Ventresca, global co-head of M&A at JPMorgan Chase & Co, and George Tierney, COO of global M&A at Citigroup.

Ventresca said global M&A activity is down about 18 percent this year from the same period in 2015. "That’s basically due to the lack of mega deals - those valued at $10 billion or more," he said.

Cross regional merger and acquisition deals are up slightly from a year ago and China is playing a much bigger role than it did a little over a decade ago, said Ventresca. He noted that so far this year Chinese companies have made purchases totaling $32 billion in North America (with most in the US), surpassing the $20 billion from 2015.