Granting of banking licence to Bank Sarasin & Cie AG

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced today (Monday) that the Monetary Authority has granted a banking licence to Bank Sarasin & Cie AG (BSC) under the Banking Ordinance. The granting of this banking licence took effect on 20 July 2009.

BSC is incorporated in Switzerland, with Coöperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank B.A. (Rabobank) being its ultimate holding company. According to the July 2008 issue of The Banker, Rabobank Group is the 3^rd largest bank group in the Netherlands and the 20^th largest bank group in the world in terms of tier-1 capital.

After the granting of a banking licence to BSC, the number of licensed banks in Hong Kong has increased to 145.

For further enquiries, please contact:
Thomas Chan, Communications Chief, at 2878 1480 or
Hing-fung Wong, Manager (Communications), at 2878 1802

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
20 July 2009