Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the largest lender by market capitalization in Australia, opened its first Chinese branch in Shanghai Friday, China Daily reported Saturday.

The branch would be focused on corporate customers in the fields of natural resources, infrastructure financing, and structure finance industries, the newspaper said.

The Sidney-based bank is only allowed to operate wholesale business in non-local currency for the first three years in China in line with the nation's regulatory policies, according to the newspaper.

Ian Saines, CBA's group executive was cited by the newspaper as saying that CBA would apply for a license to do personal banking business in renminbi after three years.

CBA's first representative office in China, set up in 1992 in Beijing, is not in the pipeline to be upgraded to a branch at present, China Daily quoted a corporate source as saying.

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