Two or three more overseas banks are expected to be locally incorporated in Shanghai this year, the city's banking regulator said over the weekend.

The unnamed banks from France and Japan are expected to set up their Chinese mainland headquarters in Shanghai to expand their China business, said Yan Qingmin, head of the Shanghai Bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, on Saturday.

The city has aims to attract more institutions to boost the city's global financial center ambitions.

"Shanghai is ready to be a major financial hub with its concentration of banking, non-banking and market infrastructure facilities," Yan said.

Since last year, Shanghai is already home to 17 locally incorporated overseas banks on the mainland, including HSBC, Citi, Standard Chartered and DBS, compared to 22 across the Chinese mainland.

Shanghai also boasts gold, foreign exchange, stock and futures markets.

Local incorporation requires overseas banks to set up a legal subsidiary to fully tap the retail yuan-backed business on the mainland.

Yan also suggested the Shanghai Stock Exchange be listed in the mainland A-share market or Hong Kong to strengthen the bourse's governance.

"It's a strategic aim to get the Shanghai Stock Exchange listed," Yan said at a Shanghai Institute of International Finance forum.

The stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the United States are listed on their own respective bourses.

(Shanghai Daily May 25, 2009)