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 ...

. 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 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 ne ...

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 Delt ...

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 China. ...

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 Yien Yieh Commercial Bank () was a bank in Hong Kong. It was established in Beijing in 1915 by Mr. Zhang Zhenfang (), the cousin of Yuan Shikai, to support the specialized salt industry by providing official funds under government supervision. Yien ...

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 most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

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 economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

s, namely: * Sin Hua Bank Limited (SHB) * China & South Sea Bank Limited (CSSB) *

Kincheng Banking Corporation Kincheng Banking Corporation or Kincheng Bank () was a bank in Hong Kong. It was established in Tianjin in 1917 by Mr. Zhou Zuomin (, a native of Huai'an in Jiangsu), Mr. Ni Sichong (, Anhui General Commander) and Mr. Wang Zhilong (, Ni's treasure ...

(KBC) *

China State Bank Limited China State Bank () was a bank in China. History *1928: Established in Shanghai with its Chinese name of 國華銀行. *1938: Set up Hong Kong branches. *1948: Change its Chinese name to 國華商業銀行. *1980: Moved its headquarters to Beij ...

(CSBL) * The National Commercial Bank Limited (TNCB) * The Yien Yieh Commercial Bank Limited (YYCB) *

Young Brothers Banking Corporation Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one is young, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an American ro ...

* Wo Sang Bank *

National Industrial Bank of China National Industrial Bank of China (NIBC; simplified Chinese: 中国实业银行, traditional Chinese: 中國實業銀行) was a bank established in September 1915 or 1919 in Tianjin. It moved its headquarters to Shanghai in 1932, into a buildin ...

In addition, the Chinese government established

Po Sang Bank Po Sang Bank was a bank established in 1949 in British Hong Kong. All other banks operated by the Bank of China in the territory were merged into the legal person of Po Sang Bank in 2001, and the legal person was renamed to Bank of China (Hon ...

in 1949 and

Nanyang Commercial Bank Nanyang Commercial Bank (NCB, Chinese: 南洋商業銀行) is a bank based in Hong Kong and a wholly owned subsidiary of China Cinda Asset Management China Cinda Asset Management Co., Ltd. known as China Cinda or just Cinda is a Chinese merc ...

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

, Wo Sang Bank and

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 Hua Chiao Commercial Bank () was a bank in Hong Kong. It was established in Hong Kong in 1962 by several Indonesian Chinese. After 1965, it became a member of Bank of China Group. It was involved in remittance and deposit account businesses, but ...

and the

. All three were incorporated in the Mainland.

1970-1980s

The Bank of China began accumulating stakes in

Chiyu Banking Corporation Chiyu Banking Corporation Limited also known as Chiyu Bank is a bank incorporated in Hong Kong. History It was founded by Tan Kah Kee on 15 July 1947, and it has 23 branches in Hong Kong and focuses on serving the community of Fujianese peo ...

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