China's biggest state-owned bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is likely to set up operations in India, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday."ICBC representatives met me in Hong Kong. They are planning to have a branch in India," Chidambaram said after inaugurating the first full-fledged branch of Bank of India in China.
So far, no Chinese bank has ventured into India. However, many Indian banks have established their presence in China, including the State Bank of India and now Bank of India, which have full-fledged banks in the booming nation.
Bank of India also has a Representative Office in Beijing, becoming the first Indian bank to have two offices in China.
Other Indian banks that have representative offices in China include Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank.
Indian Ambassador to China, Nirupama Rao said that seven Indian banks were awaiting approval for starting operations in China.
ICBC, which recently acquired Halim Bank of Indonesia, has a total asset of over RMB 7 trillion at the end of 2006.
The ICBC is the largest commercial bank in China with more than 2.5 million corporate clients and 150 million individual customers. ICBC maintains the largest market shares in the domestic market in all major banking services.
On October 27, 2006, ICBC created world's largest IPO and listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, raising total funds of $21.9 billion.
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