Granting of restricted banking licence to Credit Agricole (Suisse) SA
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    The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (May 24) that the Monetary Authority has granted a restricted banking licence to Crˆmdit Agricole (Suisse) SA (CAS) under the Banking Ordinance. This grant of restricted banking licence took effect on May 23, 2006.

     CAS is a bank headquartered in Switzerland. Its principal activities are private banking, corporate banking and capital markets activities. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Crˆmdit Agricole Group. According to the July 2005 issue of The Banker, Credit Agricole Group is the 5th largest bank in the world in terms of tier-1 capital.

     After the granting of a restricted banking licence to CAS, the number of restricted licence banks in Hong Kong has increased to 32.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687 or
Hing-Fung Wong, Resource Co-ordinator, at 2878 1802

Ends/Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Issued at HKT 16:31

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