Bank of China

The Bank of China (BOC) is a state-owned multinational corporation. It provides a wide range of financial services. The company is headquartered in Beijing, China. It is recognized as one of the "big four" banks in the country. Because of its massive size, the Financial Stability Board calls it a systemically important bank. This means its actions can affect the stability of the whole global financial system.

The bank functions through several complex financial mechanisms. It manages foreign exchange, which is the process of changing one country's money into another. It also handles international trade and manages foreign debt for governments. The bank provides insurance and securities services, which are financial instruments like stocks or bonds. It also operates as a lender, providing large sums of money to people and businesses. In recent years, it has focused on the Belt and Road Initiative. This is a large-scale project to build connections between countries. Between 2015 and 2020, the BOC lent over US$185.1 billion for these projects.

Throughout its history, the bank has moved through distinct organizational stages. It began as the Da-Qing Bank in 1905 under the Qing dynasty. In 1912, it was reorganized into the Bank of China under a new government. For a time, it was one of the "Big Four" banks that had the privilege of issuing banknotes. After the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, its operations were mostly absorbed by the People's Bank of China (PBC). The bank was later re-established in 1979 as a spin-off from the PBC. This re-establishment focused specifically on international finance during China's reform and opening up period.

The history of the bank is marked by rapid global expansion and significant shifts. Chen Jintao is viewed as the founder of the reorganized bank in 1912. In 1928, the head office moved from Beijing to Shanghai. The bank reached out internationally very early. It opened a branch in London in 1929 to manage foreign debt. Other early overseas branches included Osaka in 1931 and Singapore in 1936. During the hostilities with Japan in 1937, the bank opened many branches in Southeast Asia. These helped move military supplies and remittances, which are money sent by workers to their families.

War and political changes caused many disruptions for the bank. During the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, most overseas branches had to close. However, the bank managed to set up six new branches in 1942 in places like Sydney and Havana. In 1971, the bank in Taiwan changed its name to the International Commercial Bank of China. In 2006, the bank underwent a massive change through an Initial Public Offering, or IPO. This is when a company sells shares to the public for the first time. The Hong Kong listing was the fourth largest IPO ever. It raised a total value of US$11.2 billion after using the Over-Allotment Option.

The bank's current scale is enormous and reaches almost everywhere. It is the most globally active of China's banks. It has branches on every inhabited continent. As of 2017, it operated in 27 different countries and areas. These locations include the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, and South Africa. Despite this global reach, most of its activity is still centered in China. In 2019, the bank was the ninth-largest bank in the world by market capitalization. By 2026, it was ranked as the fourth-largest bank in the world in terms of total assets.

Recent years have seen the bank address internal social goals. In 2023, the bank launched a salary management system reform plan. This was done to follow a "common prosperity" agenda. The goal was to reduce wealth inequality among employees. Under this plan, lower-level employees saw salary increases of 10% to 15%. Meanwhile, higher-level managers saw their salaries reduced by a similar range. This shows how a major financial institution can react to social and political shifts in its home country.