Euromoney 40th anniversary special: Focus on Bohai Bank

Founded in 2006 with registered capital of Rmb5 trillion ($730 billion) and headquartered in Tianjin, Bohai Bank was the first national joint stock bank to be set up in China since 1996. As the city of Tianjin and surrounding Binhai New Area are a model for the Chinese government to test financial reforms, so Bohai represents an opportunity to see what a built-from-scratch, home-grown bank can do to support the country’s growth. Management say their aim is to support the region’s growth by providing a full range of banking services to its companies; the bank also formed a strategic alliance with a separate investment banking arm and is looking to increase revenues from fee-based products. The bank’s largest stakeholder is a local government investment entity, with Standard Chartered holding a 19.9% share from the bank’s inception. Bohai’s management say that they have learned much from their foreign stakeholder about risk management and corporate governance, and that their bank’s lack of bad loans and legacy problems means they are well placed to provide a new model of banking for China. While they have yet to be tested by the economic downturn, the early signs were good: net profits rose 178% in 2008 to Rmb127 million.