On January 5, the Board of Directors of Mongol Bank made the decision to issue Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) a license to open a representative office in Ulaanbaatar. As stated in the current Banking Law, if a foreign bank requests beginning operations in the country, the issue must be discussed by Parliament and the Cabinet. If the request is to open a representative office, the Board of Mongol Bank has the authority to issue a license. Representative offices are not allowed to conduct banking operations and only serve as legal representatives of the bank. Since 2008, ING Group, Bank of China, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation have been issued licenses to operate representative offices in Mongolia. ICBC is considered the the largest bank in the world in terms of its total assets and market capitalization. It ranks number one in The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks rankings, and first on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s biggest public companies.