Fubon Financial, Taiwan's No.5 financial holding firm, said it had no plans to buy a stake in China's Xiamen Commercial Bank any time soon.

The statement came after the Commercial Times said Fubon was set to sign a contract with the Chinese lender on Friday to buy a 20 percent stake for 600 million yuan ($79 million), or 2.2 yuan per share.

Fubon would eventually raise the stake to 51 percent with other investors, the Chinese-language paper said. "There is definitely no such thing," Fubon Financial president Victor Kung said in a statement late on Wednesday.

"It has been Fubon's strategy to aggressively expand our exposure in Greater China, but we will do it only if it complies with regulations."

Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a breakaway province, bans domestic banks investing in or opening branches on the mainland.

Fubon's shares had dropped 1.5 percent on Thursday morning, lagging a 0.3 percent drop in the main index.