Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s largest lender, has applied for banking licences in the US and Russia as it seeks to expand outside its home market, the bank’s chairman said on Tuesday.

“We have applied to regulatory authorities in the US, Russia and other places to set up operations,” Jiang Jianqing, ICBC’s chairman, said after the bank’s annual general meeting. “Global investors are all looking at the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – and we are very interested in increasing our operations in these markets too.”