--File -- i membri dello staff guardare allo stand di industriali e di banca commerciale della Cina (ICBC) durante una mostra a Fuzhou, sud Chinas Fujian provi
--File--Staff members look on at the stand of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) during an exhibition in Fuzhou, south Chinas Fujian province, 28 April 2012. The United States on Wednesday (May 9) opened its banking market to ICBC, Chinas biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company. Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the US subsidiary of Bank of East Asia. The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States. ICBC has been the most aggressive of Chinas big four banks in expanding overseas. According to the Fed the bank has total assets of roughly $2.5 trillion. It will buy up to 80 percent of the US unit of the Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia, which operates 13 branches in New York and California.