Standard Life has underlined its global ambitions by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest bank.

ICBC is listed on both the China and Hong Kong stock exchanges and is said to be "a Fortune Global 500 corporation with the largest market value and highest profitability in the banking industry at present worldwide".

The agreement commits the bank and Scotland's financial giant to work together to identify opportunities for the benefit of both businesses in China, Hong Kong and the UK.

Standard says the businesses "will work together to focus on developing broader co-operation in the areas of savings and investment solutions". The agreement will also promote sharing of knowledge and expertise through regular senior executive interaction.

ICBC already has a long-standing relationship with Standard Life's joint venture in China, and has a business focus "to facilitate its clients' cross-border investment opportunities and to promote global business co-operation", Standard said.

Sandy Begbie, Standard's chief operating officer, who was flying back to Edinburgh from the region yesterday, said: "We are delighted to be working so closely with ICBC, one of the world's largest banks and a key player in the Chinese savings market. Standard Life is committed to the Asian market and focused on deepening our reach in the region."

The Heng An joint venture in which Standard has a 50 per cent stake was launched in 2003 with partner TEDA (Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area). It has over 1,250 employees and around 3,200 financial consultants, operating from 10 branches and 29 city-level sales offices with around 200,000 customers.

It followed the opening of Standard's Hong Kong office in 1999.

But in late 2010 a deal to sell a stake to Bank of China fell through. In June 2012, Standard set up an Asia Advisory Board led by its chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone, to support all its ventures including Standard Life Investments' Asia and emerging markets business and HDFC Life in India.

A new Asia and emerging markets division was split away from the European business under chief executive Nathan Parnaby, who soon unveiled a five-year plan to quadruple the size of the business. Chief executive David Nish said there were "exceptional opportunities in Asia and these changes ensure we're in the best possible position to take advantage of them".

However eight months later Mr Parnaby left the business and was replaced by Hong Kong bureau chief Alan Armitage, reporting to Mr Begbie. The firm said that the team supporting its Indian and Chinese joint ventures would now sit within the group's central strategy team.

It reported "good progress" within the business including increased market shares in India and China, but said the changes would create a Hong Kong hub of key shared functions, in order to be closer to branches and customers in the region including China and Dubai.

Two years ago the group was granted a licence by regulators to set up a branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The opening came on the back of its expansion into the fast-growing Singapore region as part of the plans to quadruple the size of the Asian business.

When Standard Life reported half-year results in August, it revealed that the two joint ventures recorded an increase in operating profit from £5m to £9m as the division, which includes the wholly-owned operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, made a £6m operating profit (£1m loss) towards the group's total operating surplus of £339m.

Last month Standard announced the surprise sale of its Canadian business for £2.2bn to end its 180-year association with the country. The deal is set to spark a 73p a share windfall for shareholders. The shares, which topped 421p in the wake of the announcement last month, were down 1.8p at 387p last night.