Chinese multinational banking company ICBC Prague branch opens for business

PRAGUE - The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), one of China's "Big Four" State-owned commercial banks, officially launched its Prague branch in the capital of the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Present at the opening ceremony were Jiri Rusnok, Governor of Czech's central bank, Gu Shu, President of ICBC, also the largest bank in the world by total assets, and Ma Keqing, Chinese Ambassador to Czech.

Prior to its opening, ICBC Prague Branch obtained the banking license issued by Czech's central bank in April 2017, making it the only branch set up by a non-EU bank in the country.

President of ICBC Gu Shu said at the opening ceremony that establishing a branch in Czech shows ICBC's confidence in the country's economic prospects and its determination to promote economic and trade ties between China and Czech.

As an important part of ICBC's service network in Central and Eastern Europe, the Prague branch will uphold ICBC's business principle of "Focusing on Customers and Creating Value through Services" and rely on ICBC Group's international operation experiences and resources to carry out extensive cooperation with Czech financial institutions, he said.

He further said the branch will continuously enhance its financial services, offer comprehensive financial services and facilities to Chinese enterprises investing and operating business in Czech and other areas of Central and Eastern Europe, provide more financial service choices to local enterprises in Czech, and actively contribute to the economic and social development of Czech.

After opening for business, ICBC Prague Branch will further enhance its services to Chinese enterprises in Czech, actively extend supports for the development of outstanding local industries such as auto-manufacturing, aviation, energy, high-tech materials through offering quality service to customers in the industries.

Up to now, ICBC has established institutions in 44 countries and regions all over the world, and extended its presence in 20 African countries indirectly through holding shares of the Standard Bank of South Africa.