THE Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has said it will begin retail and corporate banking operations under the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Canada) in Canada.

In January, ICBC completed the acquisition of 70 percent of Bank of East Asia (Canada).

With the announcement on Tuesday, all former BEA (Canada) branches, four in Toronto and two in Vancouver, will be converted to offices of ICBC (Canada). The new ICBC (Canada) will have about 10,000 retail and corporate customers.