China Bohai Bank is a commercial bank in Tianjin, China. Established on December 31, 2005, and opened for business in February 2006. The bank had a registered capital of CN¥8.5 billion and net equity of CN¥35.6 billion as of 31 December 2015.[1]
History
The bank was the brainchild of the Tianjin mayor (and previous head of the People's Bank of China) Dai Xianglong who turned a national banking licence for Tianjin, that had been promised to the city in the mid-1990s, into reality and in the process kicking off an important upgrading of the Tianjin financial system. This was the 1st national banking licence to have been approved by the State Council since China Minsheng Bank in 1995.
The precondition for the national licence, stipulated by the regulators, was that foreign expertise should be brought in to ensure that the bank could herald a new era for Chinese banking following the modern organisational design of western banks, in particular the risk management system and product development approach.
In turn a small set up team was formed from local bank officials, led by Mr Sun Li Guo, and a beauty contest was held for the foreign banking partner. Standard Chartered Hong Kong was selected as Strategic investor and a 19.99% shareholding was agreed. Other investors included TEDA Holding