Bank of China Group (中銀集團;BOCG) was the brand used to denote 13 banks that were almost entirely owned by the Chinese government that operated in Hong Kong, until their merger in 2001 to form

Bank of China (Hong Kong) Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited () also known as its short name Bank of China (Hong Kong) or BOCHK (), is a subsidiary of the Bank of China (via a Hong Kong-listed intermediate holding company BOC Hong Kong (Holdings)). Bank of China (Hong K ...

. The exception was the Hong Kong branch of the

Bank of Communications Bank of Communications Limited (BoComm) (; often abbreviated as ), is the fifth-largest bank in mainland China. Established in 1908, the Bank of Communications claims a long history in China and is one of the banks to have issued banknotes in mo ...

, which left BOCG in 1998. The BOCG brand is still retained by the

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

and

casualty insurance Casualty insurance is a defined term which broadly encompasses insurance not directly concerned with life insurance, health insurance, or property insurance. Casualty insurance is mainly liability coverage of an individual or organization for n ...

operations of the

Bank of China The Bank of China (BOC; ) is a Chinese majority state-owned commercial bank headquartered in Beijing and the fourth largest bank in the world. The Bank of China was founded in 1912 by the Republican government as China's central bank, repl ...

, in both

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...

History

The opening of a branch of the Bank of China in Hong Kong in 1917 marked the entry of state-owned Chinese banks into the then colony's banking sector. Other banks soon followed suit, starting with Yien Yieh Commercial Bank in 1918. By the time the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

was established in 1949, there were 15 branches of state owned Chinese banks in Hong Kong, plus branches of nine Mainland-incorporated banks that were public-private

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

s, namely: * Sin Hua Bank Limited (SHB) * China & South Sea Bank Limited (CSSB) * Kincheng Banking Corporation (KBC) * China State Bank Limited (CSBL) *

The National Commercial Bank Limited The National Commercial Bank Limited, also known as Zhejiang Xingye Bank (), was a Chinese bank considered one of the "Three Southern Banks" during nationalist government era. It was merged to Bank of China (Hong Kong) in 2001. History *1907: ...

(TNCB) * The Yien Yieh Commercial Bank Limited (YYCB) * Young Brothers Banking Corporation * Wo Sang Bank * National Industrial Bank of China In addition, the Chinese government established Po Sang Bank in 1949 and Nanyang Commercial Bank in 1950. Both of these were incorporated in Hong Kong.

Centralised management

In 1952, the nine public-private banks were grouped into the Joint Office of Joint Public-Private Banks. The Hong Kong branches of three of these (namely Young Brothers Banking Corporation, Wo Sang Bank and National Industrial Bank of China were closed in 1954 when their parents were scrapped, and management of the remaining six public-private banks were transferred to the Hong Kong and Macau Regional Office of the Bank of China in 1958. The Bank of China later took over management of the Hong Kong branches of

Kwangtung Provincial Bank The Kwangtung Provincial Bank () was a bank latterly based in Hong Kong, also known as the Provincial Bank of Kwangtung Province. The largest of the provincial banks, there were however a succession of at least seven distinct organisations trading ...

, Hua Chiao Commercial Bank and the

. All three were incorporated in the Mainland.

1970-1980s

The Bank of China began accumulating stakes in Chiyu Banking Corporation in the 1970s. In June 1975, the Bank of China moved to increase the capital of the public-private banks. As all of the new capital were from the Chinese government, private ownership in the public-private banks were substantially reduced to less than 1%. The 14 banks were rebranded as part of the Bank of China Group in the 1980s, after a common IT platform was established. Treasury and foreign currency exchange operations were also centralised. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bank Of China Group Defunct banks of Hong Kong Banks of Hong Kong Banks established in 1917 Bank of China Banks disestablished in 2001