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Chinese Internet giant Baidu and China CITIC Bank have been given approval to open a new joint banking operation, according to a report by thepaper.cn.

Banking regulators have approved Baixin Bank to begin operations sometime in the coming six months.

Baixin Bank will offer online and telephone banking. Baixin will not have any brick-and-mortar branches.

It will maintain registered capital of 2 billion yuan (around 300 million US dollars).

CITIC Bank will hold a 70 percent stake, while Baidu will hold the rest.

Chinese authorities first started allowing private banks in 2014.

Baidu, as well as rivals Alibaba and Tencent, have already earned banking licenses through similar alliances with other partners.