The new branches will be in Qingdao, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Suzhou, MHCB managing executive officer Hidetake Nakanura told a financial forum held here.

The branches in Qingdao and Guangzhou have won approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and the Qingdao Branch is likely to be opened in the first half of 2008, he said.

The MHCB China, which was founded in Shanghai in 2007, currently has seven offices on the Chinese mainland, including its head office in Shanghai and five branches in Shenzhen, Dalian, Beijing, Wuxi and Tianjin, and the Dalian DDZ Sub-branch. It has been approved by the CBRC for local incorporation.

The Tokyo-based bank will further expand its corporate business this year, with investment largely into environment protection and infrastructure, said Hidetake Nakanura, noting its business in the Chinese mainland had been growing steadily. Its business in China now makes up less than 30 percent of its total business in the Asian market.

"China's tighter monetary policies will in a way affect our mainland business," he added.

The bank official also said they so far had no plans to buy into small and medium-sized Chinese commercial lenders.