China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said here on Friday in a public statement that the Bank of China's application for the initial public offering (IPO) of its A shares has been approved.

The Bank of China (BOC) has submitted an IPO application for scrutiny and approval to the nation's securities regulator aiming to raise no more than 20 billion yuan (2.5 billion U.S. dollars).

A CSRC committee examined the BOC's IPO plan for the mainland stock market at a meeting held on Friday.

The BOC is projected to issue a maximum of 10 billion shares, the highest among the Chinese companies already listed in the renminbi-denominated A-share market. The bank's total assets and net assets would also dwarf other public firms.

China also has a smaller B-share market for trading of foreign currency shares.

Analysts said the new share offering would help further boost the BOC's capital base, after the No. 2 lender in China raised 9.7 billion U.S. dollars from its recent initial public offering -- the world's biggest in six years -- in Hong Kong.

The BOC's so-called H-shares have surged more than 20 percent by Monday since their debut on June 1.

China is overhauling its state-owned, debt-laden banking sector prior to opening the financial market fully to foreign banks by the end of this year under a WTO commitment.

The government has moved to write off the major banks' bad debts, reshuffle them into share-holding companies, invite strategic foreign investors and let them go public.

Source: Xinhua