Stitch:
There are many Asian companies too who own equity (a lot of it) in the US. For example, the Japanese hold a lot of US equity and Treasuries. At some point in time the Japanese held 40% of US Treasuries and there was a hue and cry in the US about it -- this did not mean that the Japanese controlled the 40% of the US government as some in the US often pointed out.
The basic point is that the Asian nations have been opposed to ownership of banks and they still are. [Even in the US Texans are opposed to Yankees owning their banking system, and so on.] Clearly, Americans are unwilling to buy weak banks in Asia. For example, yesterday, Citibank refused to buy an ailing bank in S Korea. The banks that are doing well do not need foreign participation. Foreign banks find it expensive and risky to have a network of branches in a different country. Observe that Citibank has found it hard/costly to have many branches in Illinois, Texas, etc. Thus, by nature banking has remained very parochial, although theoretically there appears to be no hurdle.
Yes, I would like to have hard data before accepting that American companies hold 60% of banking and insurance business elsewhere in the world.
Sankar |
