Beijing Gao Hua Securities, the China-based investment banking partner of Goldman Sachs, is preparing to offer brokerage services to individual clients this year, Bloomberg reports.

Plans are at their early stages and are still confidential, but people close to the matter told the news service that new outlets are expected in Chongquing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Shenzhen soon. The move will likely place the company alongside the country's largest retail brokerage firms, like China Galaxy Securities Co, which has over 200 branches, and create significant leverage against rival UBS, which already operates a brokerage venture with Beijing Securities Co.

The global financial crisis has resulted in investors looking to go beyond placing their money in banks and seeking alternative revenue sources. Investment trends of late show that a greater volume of China's 25.3 trillion yuan ($3.7 trillion) household savings are moving toward the stock market. Figures from the China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp, over the first 11 months of 2009 alone, show around 18 million brokerage and mutual fund accounts were opened in the country, 99.6 per cent of which came from retail investors.

The sources also told the publication that Gao Hua is mulling the establishment of an asset management firm this year.

Gao Hua has declined to comment on the matter.