HERE
JAP BANK MAY OPEN HERE IN LATE NOV.
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The first Japanese bank to be opened here since the end of the war will probably start functioning in late November, banking circles told the Standard yesterday.
The bank will be situated in the central business district. Chief executives handling preparatory works were reported to be negotiating for tenancy at the old Bank of China Building, Pedder Building and Shell House.
The present Bank of China premises will be available sometime in November and is reported by the Standard informants to be the prospective site for the Japanese bank.
The second possible site is the Pedder Building, ground floor, the former Nationalist Central Trust office. The flat is now occupied by the Overseas Chinese Service Branch of Bank of China, which will move out upon the completion of the Bank's new skyscraper.
A third choice will be the Shell House show rooms at the corner of queen's Road, Central, and Wyndham Street, overlooking the busiest spot of the Colony. Negotiations for this site were also reported to be going on.
Local business circles showed considerable anxiety over the prospective establishment of a Japanese bank in Hongkong which they interpreted as the vanguard of an all-out Japanese campaign to overun Hongkong and its neighbouring market.
Leading bankers further pointed out that Japanese merchants have been enthusiastic to resume banking business in Hongkong two or three years ago. They recalled that a delegate of the Japanese banking circles had approached a number of Chinese capital banks last year hoping to invest U.S.$500,000 cash in one of the banks.
With the impending peace treaty, preparations to set up a Japanese bank have been in full swing in the past months. One report said that the name of the bank had been fixed as "Yah Tung" meaning East Asia. It is expected that Japanese representatives will contact the government for registration
soon as the peace treaty is signed.
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