Central bank makes liquidity injection

    THE central bank injected liquidity into the banking system for the third consecutive week in a row, as part of its efforts to ease monetary conditions and bolster a slowing economy.

    The People’s Bank of China injected a net 164 billion yuan (US$26.03 billion) into the banking sector this week via its regular open market operations, following a net injection of 365 billion yuan in the last week of September, a record weekly amount.

    Singapore closer to yuan-clearing bank

    SINGAPORE has issued full banking licenses to two Chinese lenders, moving it a step closer to getting a yuan-clearing bank that will let it compete more aggressively with Hong Kong in the growing market for yuan-denominated trades and financial products.

    Singapore said in July it had agreed to give Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China greater access to its retail market and China will in turn allow one of the two banks to become a clearing bank for yuan transactions. Singapore is the world’s fourth-largest forex trading center and the main Asian base for oil and commodity traders.

    FedEx seeks license for express service

    FEDEX Corp. executives said Thursday they’re still seeking approval from the Chinese Government to provide domestic express-package service throughout the country, noting they have yet to get an explanation from China as to why their new license authorizes only a small portion of what they’d requested.

    “We’d prefer them to go on and issue us the [full] license,” FedEx chief executive Fred Smith said. FedEx already provides domestic service to more than 400 Chinese cities through joint ventures in the country, but both it and United Parcel Service Inc. have been seeking countrywide access of their own.

    GM auto finance JV to sell securities

    GENERAL Motors Co.’s (GM) auto finance venture in China plans to issue 2 billion yuan (US$317.5 million) worth of auto loan-backed securities on China’s interbank market soon, a source familiar with the situation said Thursday.

    It will be the second offering of asset-backed securities by the issuer — GMAC-SAIC Automotive Finance Co. It sold 1.99 billion yuan of such securities in January 2008, in China’s first assets-backed-securities issuance by an auto finance company.