ABSTRACT
‘Two old, dilapidated boats, I’ll never buy them’. Old Chen was not looking at anyone in particular when he raised his head from the trading room computer terminal to make this comment, bringing laughter from the circle of other retired factory workers regularly present at a Xujiahui trading room in Shanghai. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Bank of China (B.C), the largest two banks in China, were the subject of his disdain. ‘It is like you hail a taxi, and then have to get out and push!’ elicited another round of chuckles.
