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The Bank of East Asia will add up to 1,000 new employees this year to service its growing business in China.

The bank is one of four lenders that received approval yesterday for incorporation in Shanghai. The new entity, Bank of East Asia (China) Ltd, will start business in April and offer unlimited retail yuan services.

"The staff growth will be even quicker if our network expansion can expand smoothly with the approval of banking regulators," said Raymond H. K. Yu, general manager of the Bank of East Asia's China division.

The bank had 1,460 employees in China at the end of last year.

It opened nine new outlets in China in 2006 and will continue its expansion this year, Yu said.

The Bank of East Asia, which now operates 31 locations in China, is expected to have more than 100 by 2010.

The lender, whose shares doubled in the past year, said 2006 profit rose 25 percent to a record HK$3.43 billion (US$439 million) as it extended more loans in China.

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