Officials Steal $500m From Bank

The theft was spread over seven years and was first discovered late last year. Of the missing money, only about $75m has been accounted for and most of this appears to have been lost in the Hong Kong real estate and stock markets after 1997. The majority of the money is thought to have been laundered in the gambling centers of Macau and in Los Angeles.

The officials at the Kaiping branch fled China and are believed to be in hiding in the US and Canada.

The latest news from the Chinese banking sector does nothing to assure investor confidence. The Bank of China is still hoping to raise $4-5bn in a global listing of its Hong Kong unit later this year.