The liberalisation of certain aspects the Foreign Investment Review Board regime, which took effect last December, have made Australia more "M&A friendly" for offshore financial institutions, a leading commercial law firm said.According to a Minter Ellison review of the FIRB changes, under the old rules foreign banks that were not authorised deposit-taking institutions sometimes required FIRB clearance to take or enforce security over Australian assets.Minter Ellison said: "This is no longer the case, with a broader money-laundering exemption in place."Minter Ellison's view is that Asian financial institutions are best placed to take advantage of this liberalisation. "Australia is an increasingly attractive destination for Asian banks, driven by the deregulation of the Chinese banking system and the higher yielding returns Chinese banks can achieve here."During 2015, Japanese banks added A$7 billion of Australian assets and Chinese/Taiwanese banks added $7.6 billion.The top three Chinese banks (by Australian assets) are Bank of China, which grew by 25 per cent last year, ICBC (which grew by 20 per cent) and China Construction Bank (which grew by 51 per cent).The Australian assets of North American banks grew by only $3.1 billion last year and the value of Australian assets of European banks fell by $7.3 billion.Minter Ellison said: "In addition, private foreign investors from China, Japan and Korea now have the benefit of higher FIRB screening thresholds under relevant bilateral free trade agreements with Australia, which may also encourage higher levels of investment from those countries and add further incentive for their home country banks to set up in Australia to service them locally."