Bank of East Asia

Origins, and until 2008

BEA was co-founded in Hong Kong on 14 November 1918 and officially opened for business on 4 January 1919. The idea of a local Hong Kong bank to blend East and West, essentially by embracing the style of a Chinese, family-run bank but also adopting modern accounting and banking methods, came from Kan Tong-po (簡東浦). Kan had the necessary banking background but needed the financial support of the Li brothers (Li Koon-chun and Li Tse-fong) and the sociopolitical support of Sir Shouson Chow, who would become co-founders, along with several other prominent local Hong Kong Chinese businessmen, including Fung Ping Shan (馮平山).

While Kan later sold his stake in the bank in the run-up to Hong Kong's handover, the Li family's influence in the bank continues to run deep today, with Sir David Li (3rd generation) being chairman, and his sons Adrian Li and Brian Li (4th generation) being co-CEOs.

BEA expanded rapidly internationally after opening. In 1920, just one year after the bank's official opening, BEA opened its first branches outside of Hong Kong, in Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City. In 1952, BEA opened its Singapore branch, located in Raffles Place at 60 Robinson Road. BEA would later enter the North American market in 1991 (though operations would later be sold to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in January 2010), and mainland China in 1992.

The late 1930s to 1940s were tough on the bank, as the Second Sino-Japanese War and later Japanese occupation of Hong Kong resulted in heavy losses, with many of BEA's assets seized. Even after the war, the Chinese Civil War and later the United Nations embargo on China negatively affected Hong Kong's economy, and as a result, BEA.

In 1965, Hong Kong experienced a city-wide banking crisis which saw other local Hong Kong banks suffer bank runs and hostile takeovers, such as Hang Seng Bank. BEA, however, was undisturbed but became much more conservative thereafter.