No. 330, Aug 27(3)

Sub-prime Losses Low at Chinese Banks 
On August 23, the Industrial and Commercial Bank and the Bank of China published their 2007 interim reports, which said that losses related to the sub-prime loan crisis were not significant. Head of ICBC's board of directors, Jiang Jianqing, says that the bank's sub-prime bonds only account for 4.32 percent of its total foreign debt and 0.0012 percent of its total assets.
Original article: [Chinese] 

ICBC Beijing Branch Changes Direction 
In a market where freshly listed state banks are being followed closely, ICBC's Beijing branch is changing its business model. Like others in the industry, it faces challenges in increasing profitability in an environment of excess liquidity and a decreasing loan-to-deposit ratio, in innovating in new products so as to attract large clients, and retaining and attracting clients from the high-income bracket.
Original article: [Chinese] 

Corporation 

Siemens CEO Visits China Amidst Bribery Probe 
Last November, German electronics giant Siemens broke headlines with news that managers had been involved in bribery exceeding 1 billion euros, with 50 percent of its China business involved. As a result, it hired U.S. law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and accounting firm KPMG to lead an internal investigate starting this past June, with the company's CEO visiting China on August 22. According to one source, telecom and electricity industries in China are steeped in grey income and that this year, methods used to conceal these kinds of illegal transactions increased in complexity.
Original article: [Chinese]   

IT 

Seventy Percent of Online Video Firms Will Leave the Market 
Analysys International, a Chinese IT market research firm, predicts that by the end of 2007, 70 percent of China's online video sites will be pushed out of the market. Lack of funds and innovative content, high costs of equipment and bandwidth, and the inability to find profitable business models are all contributing factors to restructuring in the industry.
Original article: [Chinese]