ICBC intends to target newcomers from China and businesses with interests in both China and Canada, two areas in which Canada's major banks have been eager to grow.

It plans to offer a wide range of retail and corporate banking products including mortgages, bank cards, deposits and commercial loans as well as mutual funds and wealth management services.

With a market capitalization of $209-billion (US), ICBC is the world's biggest bank by that measure.  China Construction Bank is second at $183-billion, followed by HSBC Holdings at $158-billion and JP Morgan Chase at $142-billion.  ICBC has 230 million retail customers and 8 million corporate customers around the world.