Foreign news: Greek banks reopen, UBS plans private banking branch for Shanghai, China's banks bail 21 July 2015 3:35PM Banking Day staff Foreign news, Greek banks are reopening after being shut for three weeks, although some restrictions remain in place. The BBC reports that Greek banks cannot process money transfers out of the country or cash cheques. Cash withdrawal limits have been eased and customers with safe deposit boxes can access them without any restrictions. Bank executives said they expected queues for several days while they caught up with the backlog. UBS Group is planning to open a private banking branch in Shanghai later this year. East & Partners reported that the bank was encouraged by the Chinese Government's moves to open up the country's finance industry and saw huge potential in servicing China's wealthy. UBS currently has offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. China's biggest banks have lent 1.3 trillion yuan (US$204 billion) to the state-backed margin lender to halt a meltdown in Chinese shares. China Merchants Bank Co was the biggest financier, lending 186 billion yuan to China Securities Finance, Bloomberg reports. The Chinese margin lender had 2.5 trillion yuan to three trillion yuan worth of funding available as of this week. The business of financing China's trade is shrinking. Since reaching a peak of about US$145 billion in June 2014, the value of trade loans provided by lenders in Hong Kong and Singapore has dropped 20 per cent, Bloomberg reports. Trade-related borrowings booked by banks in the two financial hubs fell in each of the three months through April 2015 to a two-year low of US$111 billion, data from the cities' monetary authorities show. Vietnam Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development has joined SWIFT's Know Your Customer Registry. The KYC Registry was launched last year and has participating banks from 125 countries. It is a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information, validated by SWIFT, required for KYC compliance between correspondent banks.