Bank of Canton was established in 1912 in Canton but registered as a British company in Hong Kong. This made it the first Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong. At the time, all the other banks in Hong Kong were foreign, primarily British, including the locally incorporated but British-run Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Security Pacific National Bank (SPNB) bought a majority share in Bank of Canton in 1971. In 1988, Security Pacific succeeded in wholly acquiring Bank of Canton, which became Security Pacific Asia Bank. When Bank of America acquired Security Pacific Corporation in 1993, it changed Security Pacific Asia Bank's name to Bank of America (Asia). China Construction Bank acquired Bank of America (Asia) in 2006.
History
In 1912, several Chinese residents of the US, including members of the Fok (Huo) family (P.T. Huo), founded the Bank of Canton (BoC), which became the first wholly Chinese-owned bank in China. BoC opened branches in Shanghai (1917). After the end of World War I, BoC opened a branch in Bangkok in 1921 and an agency in New York that became a branch in 1922 and that closed in 1931. In 1922, it also opened branches in Hankou and Shantou. The Chinese branches issued bank notes denominated in local currency dollars, with the Shanghai branch even issuing a 500-dollar note.
In 1935, China went off the silver standard; BoC was one of the banks that consequently failed.