The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country’s biggest commercial lender, announced that it now owns 60% of UK’s Standard Bank Plc, the global international commodities and foreign exchange unit of Standard Bank Group, Xinhua reported. ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing said in an official statement that the majority stake in Standard Bank Plc enables ICBC to handle demand for global businesses. Standard Bank Plc, the biggest African banking group by assets, is important for ICBC so it can proactively address demand cased by the liberalization of China’s capital market, the development of offshore yuan business and the acceleration of overseas investment.
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