Article 12 A foreign bank that applies for establishing a branch shall satisfy the following requirements in addition to those provided in article 9 of these regulations:

(1) having total assets of not less than US$20 billion at the end of the year prior to the submission of the application;

(2) having a capital adequacy ratio that meets the requirements prescribed by the financial supervisory authority of its home country or region and the banking regulatory agency of the State Council; and

(3) having maintained a representative office within the territory of the People's Republic of China for over two years where the foreign bank applies for establishing its first branch.

Article 13 A foreign bank that has already established an operational foreign-funded bank within the territory of the People's Republic of China shall not establish a new representative office if it has already maintained a representative office, with the exception of establishment of a representative office in the areas covered by the regional development strategy or other related policies of the State.

If a representative office is changed with approval into an operational foreign-funded bank, the foreign bank shall go through the procedures for cancellation of registration of the original representative office in accordance with law.

Article 14 Where applying for establishing an operational foreign-funded bank, the applicant shall first apply for the preparation of the bank and submit the following application documents to the banking regulatory agency in the place where the proposed bank is to be established:

(1) an application letter, including the name, location, registered capital or operating capital, the business scope of the proposed bank;

(2) a feasibility study report;

(3) the draft articles of association of the proposed wholly foreign-funded bank or Chinese-foreign joint venture bank;

(4) the business contract signed by all shareholders of the proposed wholly foreign-funded bank or Chinese-foreign joint venture bank;

(5) articles of association of the shareholder of the proposed wholly foreign-funded bank or Chinese-foreign joint venture bank or of the foreign bank applying to establish a branch;

(6) the organizational chart, name-list of major shareholders, overseas establishments and associated enterprises of the shareholder of the proposed wholly foreign-funded bank or Chinese-foreign joint venture bank or of the foreign bank applying to establish a branch and its parent group;

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