January 17, AM, Luxembourg-ICBC announced the opening of five European branches in Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Milan (Italy) and Madrid (Spain). Meanwhile, ICBC Luxembourg S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of ICBC, will be officially renamed as ICBC (Europe) S.A.. ("ICBC Europe"). said ICBC in the announcement in Luxembourg. Under ICBC Europe are ICBC's five branches in Europe. The bank now scales up its service network by having a presence in 9 European countries (Germany, Luxembourg, UK, Russia, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain). The new branches will offer full range of financial services including loan and deposits, settlement, trade finance and investment banking. They will act as the bridge and link for Chinese and European companies to engage trade and investment activities between the two continents.

Speaking at the press conference in Luxembourg, ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing said the Bank has always attached high importance to the strategic significance and the long-term growth potential of the European market. Europe is still one of the most important political and economic entities in the world, despite the recent issues on the economy and Euro. The five branches in Europe at the same time show the Bank's confidence in Europe. ICBC's next move is to expand its presence in Europe and leverages ICBC Group's leading IT platform and electronic banking to launch online services. Worthy of note is that ICBC Europe will step up its efforts together with ICBC subsidiaries around the world, especially ICBC branches in China, to offer one-stop financial services across the countries for Chinese and European customers.

During recent years, the cooperation between China and Europe has been further developed in economy and trade. The EU is now the largest trading partner of China, and the largest source of technology as well. 2010 statistics showed that China-EU bilateral trade volume in January-October period rose 32.9% from the same period a year earlier to 388.4 billion US dollar, China-EU trade and economic relations are moving into a new phase of intensive interaction, from simply merchandise trading in the past to today's multi-dimensional partnership covering all aspects and different areas. More and more Chinese companies choose to invest in Europe, many of them have already established long-term relationship with ICBC. Complementing to the booming trade and economic activities are the increasing personnel exchanges between China and the EU. Today, China is one of the source countries for immigration settlement and overseas students to Europe. Statistics shows that there are 2.5 million Chinese in Europe. Every year, more than 200,000 Chinese students go to Europe for further study, over a million Chinese join tours to Europe. This creates massive potential for financial services related to China and rich business opportunities for ICBC Europe as well.

ICBC is the largest commercial bank in China. ICBC maintains market leading position in almost all commercial banking businesses in China backed by its solid customer base, cutting-edge IT technology and diversified product portfolio. ICBC is seeing a real acceleration in the performance and profitability since its simultaneous IPO in Shanghai and Hong Kong in 2006. Today, ICBC is the most profitable commercial bank in the world with the largest market capitalization and the largest customer deposits. In recent years ICBC has escalated its international presence through new branches and acquisitions and scaled up its overseas subsidiaries and business areas to offer financial services across the globe. As of today, ICBC has a global network comprising 203 overseas subsidiaries in 28 countries/regions and 1453 correspondent banks in 132 countries/regions spreading over five continents of Asia, Africa, Europe. America and Australia, offering services to customers in different markets across the world.