Bank of China

Bank of China

Bank of China is one of the 5 biggest state-owned commercial bank in China,was formally established in February 1912 following the approval of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. From 1912 to 1949, the Bank served consecutively as the country’s central bank, international exchange bank and specialised international trade bank. Fulfilling its commitment to serving the public and developing China’s financial services sector, the Bank rose to a leading position in the Chinese financial industry and developed a good standing in the international financial community, despite many hardships and setbacks. After 1949, drawing on its long history as the state-designated specialised foreign exchange and trade bank, the Bank became responsible for managing China’s foreign exchange operations and provided vital support to the nation’s foreign trade development and economic infrastructure by its offering of international trade settlement, overseas fund transfer and other non-trade foreign exchange services. 

During China’s reform and opening up period, the Bank seized the historic opportunity presented by the government’s strategy of capitalising on foreign funds and advanced technologies to boost economic development, and became the country’s key foreign financing channel by building up its competitive advantages in foreign exchange business. In 1994, the Bank was transformed into a wholly state-owned commercial bank. In August 2004, Bank of China Limited was incorporated. The Bank was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange in June and July 2006 respectively, becoming the first Chinese commercial bank to launch an A-Share and H-Share initial public offering and achieve a dual listing in both markets. In 2014, Bank of China was designated again as a Global Systemically Important Bank, becoming the sole financial institution from emerging economies to be designated as a Global Systemically Important Bank for four consecutive. The network of branches of Bank of China has covered 29 countries and regions worldwide, as well as 32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. In Hong Kong and Macao, Bank of China is also one of the local note-issuing banks.By the end of 2009, domestic and overseas branches of Bank of China totaled 10,961, including 9,988 branches in Chinese mainland and 973 overseas branches, with a total staff of 262,566.

As China’s most internationalised and diversified bank, Bank of China provides a comprehensive range of financial services to customers across the Chinese mainland as well as 41 countries and regions. The Bank’s core business is commercial banking, including corporate banking, personal banking and financial markets services. BOC International Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, is the Bank’s investment banking arm. Bank of China Group Insurance Company Limited and Bank of China Insurance Company Limited, both wholly owned subsidiaries, run the Bank’s insurance business. Bank of China Group Investment Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary, undertakes the Bank’s direct investment and investment management business. Bank of China Investment Management Co., Ltd., a controlled subsidiary, operates the Bank’s fund management business. BOC Aviation Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, is in charge of the Bank’s aircraft leasing business.

Bank of China has upheld the spirit of “pursuing excellence” throughout its hundred-year history. With adoration of the nation in its soul, integrity as its backbone, reform and innovation as its path forward and “people first” as its guiding principle, the Bank has built up an excellent brand image that is widely recognised within the industry and by its customers. Faced with new historic opportunities, the Bank will meet its social responsibilities, strive for excellence, and make further contributions to achieving the China Dream and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank is a leading global investment bank, which offers a range of products and services in investment, corporate and retail banking, as well as in asset and wealth management with a strong and growing private clients franchise. Founded in Berlin in 1870 to support the inter­national­ization of business and to promote and facilitate trade relations between Germany, other European countries, and overseas markets, Deutsche Bank has developed into a leading global provider of financial services. One of the world’s largest banks, it has a number of foreign offices and has acquired controlling interests in several foreign banks in Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

The first bank was licensed by King William I of Prussia on March 10, 1870, and it began operation in Berlin on April 9. Branches were opened in Bremen in 1871, in Hamburg, Shanghai, and Yokohama, Japan, in 1872, and in London in 1873. By the end of the century, it had absorbed a number of other German banks and multiplied its capital about 10-fold under its managing director Georg von Siemens. More mergers were capped in 1929 by the amalgamation of Deutsche Bank with its older rival, Disconto Gesellschaft. After experiencing difficulties at the onset of the Great Depression, the company prospered hugely under the Nazi regime.

With the collapse of the Third Reich, Deutsche Bank’s offices in Berlin and eastern Germany were closed by the Russian occupation forces or were expropriated; branches in western Germany were “decartelized,” coalescing in 1947–48 as 10 independent banks. As the Cold War progressed and as the economic growth and cooperation of what by then was West Germany became a priority, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization reduced its opposition to West German economic consolidation. By 1952 the 10 banks had been reduced to 3; and in 1957 the 3 successor institutions were reunited to form a single Deutsche Bank AG. The bank made several significant acquisitions in the 1990s, including U.S.-based Bankers Trust. Its primary interests are in Europe, and it has additional operations in Asia, North America, and South America. By the early 21st century, it served more than 12 million customers in more than 70 countries.

Against a backdrop of increasing globalization in the world economy, Deutsche Bank is very well-positioned, with a presence in over 70 countries, significant regional diversification and substantial revenue streams from all the major regions of the world.It has established strong bases in all major emerging markets, and therefore has good prospects for business growth in fast-growing economies, including the Asia Pacific region, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America.In Europe, it is well placed to benefit from the aforementioned resilient conditions in its home market, Germany, and from continued strong levels of corporate activity in the euro zone.

The current logo was introduced in 1974. The Bank chose this famous symbol - a forward slash inside a square - from the 140 proposals submitted. It was designed by Anton Stankowski, a graphic designer. Prior to this date, Deutsche Bank had used various logos, typefaces and symbols.Its shares have been listed on the Berlin stock exchange ever since the Bank was founded in 1870. Further listings were in Frankfurt am Main in 1880, Paris in 1974, London in 1976, Brussels in 1978, Tokyo in 1989 and New York in 2001.

The registered office of Deutsche Bank AG was located in Frankfurt am Main on 2 May 1957. At the time, there were further head offices with large back-office departments in Hamburg and Düsseldorf. Today the Bank's only head office is located in Frankfurt. From 1870 to 1945 the Bank's head office was located in Berlin. Between 1947/48 and early 1957 Deutsche was split into several regional banks as a consequence of the Second World War and was not allowed to operate under its old name. Its first investment in an American financial institution was the limited partnership it acquired in Knoblauch & Lichtenstein, a New York bank, in 1872. 

One of Deutsche's major international projects from the 1880s onwards was to help finance the construction of the US railways. Plans to open a branch of its own in America were thwarted by the First World War. Deutsche Bank did not operate under its own name in the US until it opened a branch in New York in 1979. In 1999 it bought Bankers Trust, a New York-based investment bank.

Annual reports are always much more than just numbers. This is where companies give account of their business, each and every year. They also contain a great deal of information that would otherwise remain uncommunicated. It is for this reason that the Historical Association of Deutsche Bank makes all past Deutsche Bank annual reports accessible to the public.There are no Deutsche Bank annual reports for the years between 1945 and 1951. The headquarters in Berlin were closed at the end of the Second World War and in the Western zones an Allied directive prescribed the opening of several regional subordinate banks; however these subordinate banks did not publish their own annual reports.

Therefore, the evolution of Deutsche Bank cannot be presented as a whole, but divided into several time periods: 1870-1914, 1924-1942, and 1952 to the present day. The period of inflation that was already underway come the beginning of the First World War and spiraled into hyperinflation in 1922 (at the climax of the fall in monetary value in November 1923 US$ 1 = 4.2 billion Marks) was only halted with the conversion to the German Rentenmark and later the Reichsmark. The decade after the Second World War must likewise be discounted, for during this time the Allies split the bank into several divisions, only reestablished as a centrally-managed financial institution in 1957.