FROM ITS FIRST DAYS in Hong Kong in a small rented building on a back street, the Bank of China's signature skyscraper on the city skyline reflects its 90-year rise to eminence in the financial world.
Now China's leading international bank with a presence in 23 countries and each major continent, BoC's ancestry belongs to the age of dynasties.
With the longest history of all Chinese banks, its forerunner was the Dai Qing (Great Qing) Bank, established in 1905 by the last imperial dynasty. After the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911, the republican government renamed it the Bank of China in 1912, and designated it the central bank, with headquarters in Shanghai.
The first Hong Kong office was opened in 1917 on 47 Bonham Strand East, with eight staff.
Always expanding despite the backdrop of years of wars, political instability and domestic turmoil, BoC was revamped as an international exchange bank after the communist takeover in 1949. It has since been China's largest foreign exchange bank, a distinction on which it continues to capitalise.
After wholesale financial reform in China in 1994, BoC became a state-owned commercial bank, one of four giants designated as the backbone of the country's banking sector. It has aspired to become internationally competitive, in Hong Kong and beyond.
Beijing had long discouraged mainland companies from involvement in Hong Kong, but when financial crisis struck the territory in the mid-1980s, it was mainland institutions that helped avert impending social chaos.
As part of the bail-out effort, a BoC arm - Conic Investment and the China International Trust and Investment Corporation (Citic) - came to Hong Kong's aid.
With a firm foothold established, BoC came to the fore when it moved into the new Bank of China Tower in 1989. The third-tallest building in Asia at the time, the prismatic geometry of the 316-metre structure came to symbolise the mainland's increasing influence in Hong Kong.
In a sign of growing co-operation between China and Hong Kong in financial matters, BoC was given the right to issue Hong Kong banknotes, which went into circulation in 1994.
BoC joined HSBC (at that time Hongkong Bank) and Standard Chartered Bank as a note-issuer. Two years in the making, the bank-note design carries a Bank of China Tower image on the front and on the back images of Hong Kong's prosperity and stability, represented by abstractions of art and facets of its economic life - transportation, tourism, shipping.
When all is said and done, BoC is a money-maker. With traditional commercial banking constituting the majority of its business - corporate and retail banking and banking with financial institutions - growth in business in Hong Kong has been historically dramatic.
Between 1978 and 1991, deposits grew 39.9 times and loans were up 57.1 times, yet staff numbers multiplied only 3.9 times.
Now, however, most of BoC's financial gains come from abroad. Last year, BoC's consolidated pre-tax profit of slightly more than 10.9 billion yuan (about HK$10.32 billion) - 80 per cent generated overseas - ranked highest of the four big state-owned commercial banks.
In the first quarter of this year, BoC achieved an operating profit of just under 5.9 billion yuan, with overseas branches reporting pre-tax profits of US$133 million.
At the end of last year, the bank's total assets were 3.39 trillion yuan. By capital strength, Bank of China ranks 18th among the world's top 1,000 banks, according to The Banker 2001 annual survey.
Last year, BoC wrote an important chapter into banking history with the establishment of the Bank of China (Hong Kong).
BoC HK, a merger of seven banks incorporated in the mainland and two incorporated locally, has more than 340 branches and combined pro forma assets of about HK$820 billion, making the conglomerate the second largest bank in Hong Kong after HSBC.
Last week's enthusiastic response to its stock offering, resulting in it being 15 times over-subscribed, will be seen as a watershed in the reform of China's banking sector as it begins to adopt international standards of practice.
A short list of accolades won by the bank include: Euromoney magazine's Best Bank in China for 2002, the eighth time BoC has won the award since 1992; US-based Global Finance magazine's China winner among the world's best foreign exchange banks and its best trade finance bank in China; and 11th on a world list of London-based Banker magazine's top 1,000 banks, compared with 18th previously.