Monday’s Headlines: It's Time to Learn Mandarin – Citi follows Goldman and UBS with China Investment Banking Venture

Citigroup, the third-largest U.S. bank by assets, has started an investment banking joint venture in China that will give it access to the world’s second-biggest market for share sales, according to Businessweek.

The venture will be called Citi Orient Securities and will be based in Shanghai.

Citi is the world’s third-biggest underwriter of equity sales this year. It has lagged behind rivals Goldman Sachs and UBS in forming a venture in China. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit is grappling with a revenue slump in trading and investment banking blaming the European sovereign-debt crisis and a faltering global economy as the culprits.

“This is the final piece of the jigsaw for the corporate investment bank in China,” Stephen Bird, Citigroup’s chief executive officer for Asia-Pacific, said at a briefing in Shanghai today. “I don’t think we are a latecomer; this is still the beginning for China.”

 

Other News:

In China, shadow banking moves online. [Bloomberg]

TD Ameritrade and Scottrade resume orders to Knight, Blackstone invests. [DealBook]

HSBC will sell its shipping consultancy arm to the unit’s management. [Reuters]

European bond traders deal in fear. [NY Times]

RBS faces a U.S. investigation for money laundering. [Telegraph]

Fidelity will introduce ETFs. [Bloomberg]

AIG’s Q2 profit jumped to $2.33 billion from $1.84 billion on tax benefits. [Reuters]

Corporate loans are highest since 2008. [Bloomberg]

Fortress’s Q2 profit that was helped by private equity. [Businessweek]

ING didn’t find a buyer for its Asian life-insurance businesses, but separate deals could fetch $7 billion. [WSJ]

Book review – Wall Street Women: How Women Crashed the Boys’ Club of High Finance. [Businessweek]