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Bank of Communications Co. (3328.HK) expects to set up an insurance unit before the end of the year, Dicky Yip, an executive vice president of the bank, said Wednesday.

"We are waiting for final approval from China's regulators," Yip told reporters on the sidelines of a financial-planning event in Shanghai. "We hope to make a breakthrough in the insurance sector before the end of the year," he added.

Yip declined to give further details of the plan to set up the unit.

The Xinhua News Agency reported in April that Bank of Communications, China's fifth-largest lender by assets, has been seeking to buy a stake in China Life-CMG Life Assurance Co., a joint venture between China Life Insurance Co. and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

China Life, which has a nearly 40% share of the country's life insurance market, has said it will sell its entire 51% stake in the Shanghai-based venture with the Australian bank to eliminate internal competition.

China's banking and insurance regulators signed an agreement last year on strengthening cross-sector supervision and cooperation, which allowed banks and insurers to take stakes in each other for the first time, among other measures.

Bank of Communications has been cooperating with more than 10 insurers, including HSBC Holdings PLC's joint venture, HSBC Life Insurance Co., to sell bancassurance products in China. HSBC owns an 18.6% stake in Bank of Communications.

Following the new rules put in place last year, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., Bank of Communications, and Bank of Beijing Co. have submitted applications to take stakes in insurance companies, officials at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said earlier.

-Rose Yu contributed to this story, Dow Jones Newswires; 8621 6120-1200; rose.yu@dowjones.com