BEIJING, July 18 -- Standard Chartered Bank plans to expand its network to more than 170 on the mainland by 2011, when the country is expected to become the "heart" of the London-based bank.

Standard Chartered, the smaller of the first group of four overseas lenders that have been locally incorporated, is hopeful China will be its largest source of mortgage loan and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) businesses and will have the single largest employee base among all its global operations.

"We want to expand our network in China as fast as we can within the regulatory regime, and we will move to as many new cities as we are allowed to," said Mike DeNoma, group executive director and CEO of the group's consumer banking business worldwide.

By 2011, China will be a major part of business for Standard Chartered, he said, while SME services and wealth management are the two growth engines for its fast rise in the country where annual economic growth has been around 10 percent in recent years.

With one of the largest foreign bank networks, of 24 outlets, in China, the British bank has said it plans to take the number to 40 and double its headcount by the end of this year as the banking sector is further deregulated in line with China's WTO entry commitments.

"We have been very pleasantly surprised by the pace of regulatory changes and how supportive the Chinese regulators have been on the local incorporation," DeNoma said in an exclusive interview.

"In the past three years, a major focus of the bank in China has been SME and we plan to expand to the new cities we are going to," he said, adding that SME and wealth management are the two new drives for the 149-year-old bank's business in China and around the world.

The bank is also looking to expand into the nation's mortgage lending market, credit and debit card business as well as private banking, targeting the emerging middle class.

"Mortgage market will continue to be a fundamental engine for our bank and China offers the most attractive single mortgage market looking out to 2011," DeNoma said, adding that the business base will enlarge by 20 to 30 times the current size in China in the next five years.

Along with three other overseas counterparts, including HSBC, Citigroup and Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered is waiting for a license from the regulators to make a foray into the debit and credit card businesses.

It plans to launch private banking operations early next month in Shanghai and Beijing with a focus on entrepreneurs and senior executives with investable wealth of more than 1 million U.S. dollars.

(Source: China Daily)