ICBC, the world's biggest bank by market value, will take 80 percent of commercial lender Standard Bank Argentina and its two affiliates, asset manager Standard Investments and Inversora Diagnol, a commercial service provider.

Johannesburg-based Standard Bank will reduce its stake in all three firms to 20 percent.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the operation had been given the go-ahead by Argentina's central bank.

ICBC will be the first Chinese lender to enter Latin America's third-largest economy, where President Cristina Fernandez ordered banks in July to lend nearly 15 billion pesos (about $3.1 billion) by year's end to finance investment in production.