The agreement has already been backed by the South African Reserve Bank and the China Banking Regulatory Commission, according to the Chinese lender, reported English.Peopledaily.

In 2011, South Africa based Standard Bank agreed to dispose of the stake in the Argentine banking unit, and its two affiliates including asset manager Standard Investments and Inversora Diagnol, a commercial service provider, to ICBC for approximately $650m.

Following the completion of the deal, the acquirer will retain the current staff and executives of SBA while dispatch a management team to oversee the stability of operations.

The Chinese lender has acquired more than 10 overseas operations, according to Jiang.

As of 30 September 2012, the bank had approximately $155bn in overseas assets.