Bank of China
The Bank of China (BOC; Chinese: 中国银行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Yínháng; Portuguese: Banco da China) is a Chinese majority owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and one of the largest banks in the world.
This article is about the commercial bank in China. For the central bank of China, see People's Bank of China. For the Filipino banking company, see Chinabank.
Native name
中国银行股份有限公司
- SSE: 601988 (A share)
- SEHK: 3988 (H share)
- SSE 50 Component (A)
- Hang Seng Component (H)
1905 (as Da-Qing Bank)
1912 (as Bank of China)
1979 (re-established)
Worldwide
CN¥227.53 billion
$33.07 billion[2] (2018)
CN¥192.44 billion
$27.97 billion[2] (2018)
CN¥1.613 trillion
$234 billion[2] (2018)
306,322[4] (2021)
16.91% (2021)[5]
中国银行
中國銀行
Zhōngguó Yínháng
Zhōngguó Yínháng
中银
中銀
Zhōngyín
Zhōngyín
中行
Zhōngháng
Zhōngháng
The Bank of China was formed in 1912 by renaming the Qing dynasty's Da-Qing Bank (est. 1905) under the newly established Republican government. Until 1942, it issued banknotes on behalf of the government as one of the "Big Four" banks of the period, together with the Bank of Communications (est. 1908), Central Bank of China (est. 1924), and Farmers Bank of China (est. 1933). Following the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, the bank continued activity in Taiwan where it renamed itself International Commercial Bank of China upon privatization in 1971, while its mainland operations were absorbed into the People's Bank of China (PBC). In 1979, the Bank of China was re-established by spin-off from the PBC in the early phase of Chinese economic reform.
As of 31 December 2019, it was the second-largest lender in China overall and ninth-largest bank in the world by market capitalization value,[7] and it is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board. As of the end of 2020, it was the fourth-largest bank in the world in terms of total assets, ranked after the other three Chinese banks.[8]
The Bank of China (Hong Kong) is the local subsidiary of the Bank of China, with which it maintains close relations in management and administration and co-operates in several areas including reselling BOC's insurance and securities services.
History[edit]
Early 20th century[edit]
In 1905, the Qing government established the Da-Qing Bank in Beijing. When the Republic of China was established in 1912, Chen Jintao was named head of financial reform in President Sun Yat-sen's government and reorganized the Da-Qing Bank into the Bank of China, of which he has subsequently been viewed as the founder.[9][10][11][12]
In 1917, Tsuyee Pei opened the branch of the Bank of China in Hong Kong.[13][14] In 1928, the bank moved its head office from Beijing to Shanghai.
In 1929, the bank opened a branch in London, its first outside of China.[15] The branch managed the government's foreign debt, became a center for the bank's management of its foreign exchange, and acted as an intermediary for China's international trade. In 1931, another overseas branch opened in Osaka,[16] and in 1936 in Singapore (to handle remittances to China of overseas Chinese) as well as an agency in New York.
In 1937, on the outbreak of hostilities with Japan, Japanese forces blockaded China's major ports. The Bank of China opened a number of branches in Batavia, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Haiphong, Hanoi, Rangoon, Bombay, and Calcutta to facilitate the gathering of remittances and the flow of military supplies. It also opened sub-agencies in Surabaya, Medan, Dabo, Batu Pahat, Baichilu, Mandalay, Lashio, Ipoh, and Seremban. In 1941-1942, the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia forced the BOC to close all its overseas branches, agencies, sub-branches and sub-agencies, except London, New York, Calcutta, and Bombay. Nevertheless, in 1942, it managed to set up six new overseas branches, such as in Sydney, (Australia), Liverpool, and Havana, and possibly Karachi.
Following the end of World War II, the Bank of China in 1946 reopened its branches and agencies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Haiphong, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Jakarta. It moved the Hanoi agency to Saigon. At the suggestion of the Allied Forces Headquarters, it liquidated the branch in Osaka and opened a sub-branch in Tokyo. In 1947, the bank opened agencies in Bangkok, Chittagong, and Tokyo.
In 1950, following the victory of Communist forces in the civil war, some of the BOC's overseas branches (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Calcutta, Bombay, Chittagong, and Karachi) of Bank of China remained with the mainland bank headquartered in Beijing, while others (e.g. New York, Tokyo, Havana, Bangkok, and one other, possibly Panama) remained with the Bank of China headquartered in Taipei, which in 1971 took the new name International Commercial Bank of China (中國國際商業銀行). The Rangoon branch was nationalized in 1963 together with all other foreign and domestic banks in Burma. In 1971, China transferred the two branches in Karachi and Chittagong to the National Bank of Pakistan. In 1975, the Republic of South Vietnam nationalized the branch in Saigon and the Khmer Rouge government nationalized that in Phnom Penh.
Company type
Bank of China Toronto Representative Office
18 May 1993[40]
473,912,000,000 renminbi (2015) 
229,237,000,000 renminbi (2015)
179,417,000,000 renminbi (2015)
16,815,597,000,000 renminbi (2015)
310,042 (2015)
Bank of China
Banknotes[edit]
Although it is not a central bank, the Bank of China is licensed to issue banknotes in two of China's Special Administrative Regions. Until 1942, the Bank of China issued banknotes in mainland China on behalf of the Government of the Republic of China. Today, the Bank issues banknotes in Hong Kong and banknotes in Macau (under the Portuguese name "Banco da China, Sucursal de Macau"), along with other commercial banks in those regions.
As of 30 September 2015, largest shareholders of the Bank of China ordinary shares (both A shares and H shares) were:[41]
As of 30 September 2015, largest shareholders of the Bank of China preference shares (both domestic and offshore) were:[42]
Controversies[edit]
Guarantee scandal in Poland[edit]
After COVEC withdrew from completing its construction of the A2 highway in Poland, Bank of China was to pay a performance guarantee to the Polish government's road organization GDDKiA. However, with Export-Import Bank of China, they refused to pay this; only Deutsche Bank honoured its obligations under the court decision.[45]
Wultz v. Bank of China[edit]
On 8 August 2008, the family of Daniel Wultz, an American teenager killed in a 2006 terrorist attack in Israel, filed suit against the Bank of China in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case was subsequently transferred to the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, where litigation continues. On 29 October 2012, the Honorable J. Scheindlin issued a ruling compelling Bank of China to provide discovery.[46][47][48]
Alleged money transfers to Hamas[edit]
In 2012, the families of eight terror victims of the 2008 Mercaz HaRav massacre in Jerusalem filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Bank of China. The suit asserted that in 2003 the bank's New York branch wired millions of dollars to Hamas from its leadership in Syria and Iran. The Bank of China subsequently denied providing banking services to terrorist groups: "The Bank of China has always strictly followed the UN's anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing requirements and regulations in China and other judicial areas where we operate."[49][50][51]