The plan was an asset-management and private-banking venture to sell Rothschild’s financial products through the 10,800 branches of the Chinese lender, according to a statement announcing the investment in September.

The delay highlights a harder recent line by the Chinese government after investments in foreign financial firms have lost at least $13 billion on paper this year, again according to Bloomberg.

A Beijing-based spokesman at Bank of China said it is waiting for approval for the investment application it made in September and declined to comment further. A spokesman at La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild in Paris declined to comment.

Michel Cicurel, the chairman of the French firm, said at the time Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild “had no need for cash” as it made the deal.