Jan. 15, 2007 (China Knowledge) – Japan's Mizuho Corporate Bank plans to open its sixth Chinese branch in Binhai New Area in the first half of 2007, after receiving approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

Mizuho Corporate Bank will be opening this sixth branch in the Binhai New Area, a northern port city of Tianjin favored by the government to become China’s third economic powerhouse after Shenzhen and Shanghai’s Pudong.

The Tokyo-based bank now has five branches and five representative offices in 10 Mainland cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Nanjing. Bank president Hiroshi Saito said in an earlier visit to Tianjin that the branch would provide financial support to Japanese firms, especially auto makers.

For the first half of the fiscal 2006 ending on Sep. 30, 2005, Mizuho Corporate Bank’s net profit stood at ¥392.34 billion, a 15.9% year-on-year increase.