Portuguese lender Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), a banking institution based in Macau, said its business with clients related to Portuguese-speaking Countries grew by 153 percent year-on-year in 2015. The figure was given by the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Pedro Cardoso, as quoted this week by Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Mr Cardoso said those clients are people from Macao or Mainland China who “are investing [in] or have investment or active projects in Portuguese-speaking Countries,” as well as people from Portuguese-speaking Countries “who have investments in Macao or in Mainland China”.

Business volume at BNU generated by clients from Portugal grew by 395 percent last year from the previous year, he added.

“We feel that even though the business and bilateral trade volume between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries has decreased… there are many opportunities and, therefore, we have been working to fully take advantage of those opportunities,” Mr Cardoso told Lusa. 

In 2015, BNU and the Bank of China Macau Branch signed a co-operation protocol aiming at promoting business between companies in China and those in Portuguese-speaking Countries.

According to Lusa, BNU will continue to act as a bridge between China and the lusophone world not only through Macao, but also via Mainland China. The lender expects to open banking premises in China’s Guangdong province by the end of this year or by early 2017.