BEIJING - The Chinese mainland's banking regulator said on Friday that it has given approval to two Taiwan banks to open branches on the mainland.

The two banks are the Chinatrust Commercial Bank and Mega International Commercial Bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a statement on its website.

Three other Taiwanese banks, including Bank SinoPac, the Industrial Bank of Taiwan and Taipei Fubon Commercial Bank, were given the green light to set up representative offices in mainland, according to the statement.

The statement said banking authorities from the mainland and Taiwan will increase cooperation in order to maintain the stability and development of the financial markets of both sides.

The CBRC said on Oct 27 that 15 Taiwanese banks had established six branches and 10 representative offices on the mainland as of that day.