China Construction Bank approved to set up London subsidiary

BEIJING, Dec. 11 (Chinese media) -- China Construction Bank (CCB) announced here

on Thursday that it had won the approval of Britain's Financial Services

Authority to establish a subsidiary in London.

This is the first subsidiary bank for China's second largest commercial

lender in Europe.

The proposed subsidiary would engage in deposit-taking, lending, trade

finance, foreign exchange dealing and other banking services, said the

Beijing-based bank.

The CCB also operates six overseas branches, including Hong Kong,

Singapore, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and Seoul.

Earlier this week, it got the green light from the U.S. Federal Reserve to

establish a branch in New York.

As one of China's "big four" state-owned banks, the CCB's total assets

topped 7.3 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of September,

according to its third quarter report.