Citi wins licence to set up fully-owned China securities unit

BEIJING/HONGKONG, Oct 23 (Reuters) China s securities regulator said on Friday it has approved a plan by Citi to establish ​a fully owned securities unit in ‌China, allowing the Wall Street bank to expand its presence in the world s second-largest economy. Headquartered in Shanghai, Citigroup Securities China Company is permitted to ‌offer ​onshore capital markets services ⁠to domestic and ⁠foreign clients, including underwriting, equities brokerage, trading onshore securities, securities research and investment advisory. The US bank, which offers corporate, institutional and ​other banking services in China, applied for a wholly owned mainland Chinese ⁠brokerage unit licence in ⁠late 2021 as part of its ​push to ramp up its China onshore ​operations. Citi has been hiring for the business ‌over the last couple of years and aims to roughly double the headcount to around 100 people by the end of ⁠this year, a person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters in September. By adding ons