Bank of China

A surge in profitability and a successful stock listing on the Hong Kong exchange despite the terrible conditions of 2002 were more than enough evidence to persuade the judges to pick Bank of China as the winner.

The country’s biggest bank as measured by Tier 1 capital, its net profit skyrocketed to Rmb1.5bn ($181m) in 2002 from just Rmb185m in 2001. It was also very efficient, claiming a cost-to-income ratio of just 37.9%.

On July 25, 2002, Bank of China became the first Chinese commercial bank to be listed on an international stock market, namely Hong Kong. Ahead of the listing, the bank’s affiliates were merged, further boosting its efficiency and competitiveness.

The share offering, worth $HK20.6bn ($2.6bn), was one of the largest in the world in last year’s bear market. Given the bank’s importance, its share was included shortly after the listing in the benchmark MSCI Hong Kong and Hang Seng indices.

On the technology front, last year Bank of China upgraded its retail foreign exchange trading service, leading to transaction volume on the platform increasing 144% to $23.9bn. The bank also significantly improved its internet banking service, opened a call centre and integrated its clearing infrastructure.

“It is a great honour for the Bank of China to be granted the award for Bank of the Year 2003 in China by the prestigious The Banker magazine,” said Xiao Gang, chairman and president of Bank of China.

“In light of the robust growth momentum of the Chinese economy in recent years, the Bank of China has embarked on the road to build good corporate governance, enhance internal control and expand businesses, with the goal of building itself into a market-driven, client-oriented world class financial service institution. These efforts paid off in 2002, as evidenced by a stronger performance and a considerable drop in non-performing loans.”

PLEASE ENTER YOUR DETAILS TO WATCH THIS VIDEO

All fields are mandatory

The Banker is a service from the Financial Times. The Financial Times Ltd takes your privacy seriously.

Choose how you want us to contact you.

Invites and Offers from The Banker

Receive exclusive personalised event invitations, carefully curated offers and promotions from The Banker



For more information about how we use your data, please refer to our privacy and cookie policies.

Terms and conditions

Join our community

The Banker on Twitter