Gulf proves fertile ground for China bank China's largest commercial bank grew rapidly in the Middle East last year, as trade links between the Gulf and the world's second-largest economy flourished. Lending, deposits and profits at the Middle East arm of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China all more than doubled in 2011, the bank announced on Wednesday, amid booming demand for trade financing between the two regions. As Chinese links to the Middle East grew, "we have been able to provide our clients with a trade and investment bridge," says Tian Zhiping, chief executive of ICBC's Middle East business. The world's largest bank by market capitalisation launched its Middle East unit in 2008, as the global financial crisis hit the Gulf. Despite subdued corporate activity and economic uncertainty in the region, the unit's assets have grown 38-fold in the three years since, reaching $3.06bn by the end of last year - a 146 per cent rise over 2010. Lending grew at a similar clip, with the balance of loans and advances up 148 per cent to $2.63bn. Trade financing continues to represent the bulk of ICBC's regional business, but the bank's renminbi-denominated services are seeing growing demand, as Gulf states and their lenders looked to deepen their exposure to the Chinese currency. "We see trade finance continuing to be one of the biggest growth areas for our business," says Mr Zhiping. But in expanding into other services, he says, "our rapidly growing renminbi business will enable us expand our investment banking and advisory businesses." In January China and the United Arab Emirates signed a currency swap agreement worth Rmb35bn ($5.5bn), during a visit to the Gulf by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier. In early March, Emirates NBD, Dubai's largest bank, issued the Gulf's first renminbi-denominated bond. Soon after, the Kuwait Investment Authority was licensed by the Chinese government to purchase renminbi-denominated stocks and bonds in China, making it only the second Middle Eastern institution after the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority to win the prized permit. In Dubai, where ICBC's regional business is headquartered, a growing Chinese community that some estimate to be up to 300,000 strong is the most visible element of the country's growing regional role. On the desert outskirts of the city, a 1.2km long mall, Dragon Mart, claims to be the largest single trading centre for Chinese products outside of mainland China. Its developer, Dubai's government-owned Nakheel, last year announced plans to more than double the size of the facility. Nakheel's expansion plans, alongside a slew of other positive data, suggest an economic recovery is well under way in the region, driven at least in part by sustained high oil prices. With windfall revenues flowing in, ICBC is "strongly considering how to provide private banking and asset management" to wealthy customers in the region, Mr Zhiping says. And when it comes to these customers and others in the Middle East, European economic pain may be ICBC's gain, says Baldwin Berges, a managing partner at Silk Invest, an asset management firm specialising in the Middle East and Africa. "Since the financial crisis first hit the Gulf, some people have wanted to diversify away from the local banks," he says. You may find some of these deciding to bank with the Chinese - and right now it might be better to go with them than a European bank.