Chinese state-owned bank expansion into Europe: Bank branches and subsidiaries

This paper seeks to deepen the understanding of how global banking networks are constituted, and how global banks’ expansion strategies interact with strategic (financial) entry points in Europe. This is discussed on the example of Chinese banks via their distinct bank branches-cum-subsidiaries strategies that locate in economically specialized international financial centers (IFCs), here Luxembourg. The IFC Luxembourg ranks among Europe’s most prominent strategic entry points, in which major Chinese banks have located their European headquarters. Chinese banks, embedded in the broader logic of China’s financial opening and expansion policies, respond to two different –partly conflicting –logics: the Chinese state and the global market. They therefore bridge geoeconomic and geopolitical boundaries. China’s extensive network of overseas banks –linked through various IFCs –helps to govern takeovers of firms abroad, investments in the large Belt and Road Initiative, and the shift toward a multipolar currency system.