Move over Citibank, ICBC is here. The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the biggest lender in the world in terms of market capitalisation, is slowly weaning off beleaguered Western heavyweights from their traditional clients.

ICBC and its cash-rich Chinese counterparts have been injecting formidable amounts of liquidity around the globe, sending markets scrambling at their slightest tweaks.

Recently, Foster's Group, Australia's biggest brewer, found itself borrowing from the ICBC and the Bank of China, which helped arrange $500 million (Dh1.83 billion) in loans to refinance debt. ICBC also lent $790 million this year to Australian supermarket chain Woolworths, Dutch commodities trader Trafigura Beheer BV and the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority.

Chinese banks boosted overseas syndicated loans to $4.9 billion in the first 10 months of this year from $3 billion in the same period of 2008 the biggest growth worldwide.

The trajectory and policies taken by Chinese banks have more or less guided the stock market this year both in Shanghai and Hong Kong. This week, the markets stayed uncertain due to several factors. The possibility of yuan appreciation and the prospect the People's Bank of China raising reserve ratio sent the stocks oscillating. A fresh wave of ‘bubble fears' also acted as a dampener.

The Shanghai Composite Index has climbed about 82 per cent this year on massive loans doled out by banks.

Domestic lending surged to a record 8.9 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of 2009 from 3.7 trillion in the same period a year earlier, freeing up immense funds to flow into the market.

Deposits at ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications, China's four largest publicly-traded banks, grew by 4.3 trillion yuan to 26.2 trillion yuan in the first half of 2009.

The growing clout is reflected in the health of China's 14 listed banks in Shanghai and Hong Kong. These banks gained a combined net profit of 338.6 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2009 and are expected to do better in 2010.

The author is a freelance journalist based in China.