Bank of Canton

Bank of Canton (Chinese: 廣東銀行) 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 acquiriing 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.

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 it closed in 1931. In 1922 it also opened branches in Hankow and Swatow . 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. At the time it had branches in San Francisco, Bangkok, Shanghai, Canton and Hankow. The next year Dr. T.V. Soong reorganized BoC and it reopened, but without the right of note issue. The Bank of Canton incorporated a subsidiary on 1 July 1936 in Macau, making it one of the longest established banks in Macau.

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