NEWS IN BRIEF

The Chinese banking regulator... today played down a report in Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post that Citigroup would be allowed to buy a 36% stake in Guangdong Development Bank, which is to be sold by the state. An unnamed China Banking Regulatory Commission official told China Daily that the commission had yet to decide on the issue, but that it was unlikely that it would relax the 20% cap on a single foreign banks stake in a Chinese bank.