The board of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank voted to establish a European division and branch office in Luxembourg.

The decision was taken during a board meeting on Wednesday (announcement in Chinese, link via Reuters news service). No timing was disclosed.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, which uses the abbreviation SPD Bank, was founded in 1992, originally to help develop the city’s financial centre. Today it provides corporate and personal financial services across mainland China. SPD Bank opened a London representative office in 2013. It also has joint ventures, in Shanghai, with the French financial group Axa and with Silicon Valley Bank.

According to The Banker, a trade publication owned by the Financial Times Group, SPD Bank “is ranked 29th in the Top 1000 World Banks by Tier 1 2016 ranking, rising 6 places from the previous ranking”.

It listed on the Shanghai bourse in 1999. According to its 2015 annual report (PDF), it had 47,159 employees.

Many major Chinese banks are expanding operations into Europe as part of the mainland government’s plan to make the renminbi an international reserve currency.

As of this writing, the office of SPD Bank’s board of directors had not returned Delano’s email requesting comment.