Background Following the
Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, China adopted a so-called
monobank system in which all financial operations were operated by the
People's Bank of China (PBC). In 1978–1979, the Chinese authorities initiated banking reform, whose effect was to transform the PBC into a proper
central bank while specialized commercial banks were formed under its watch. This resulted in the gradual establishment of a
two-tier banking system. established on 1 January 1984. ICBC was then the fourth of the four specialist banks of 1978–1979 to be made,) from
People's Bank of China so that the latter might be transformed to a newly made central bank. ICBC opened its first overseas branch in
Singapore in 1993. It opened a branch in
Luxembourg in 1999, which became its European headquarters in 2011. In 2000, ICBC acquired the
Union Bank of Hong Kong and renamed it
ICBC (Asia). A Hong Kong-listed entity, ICBC (Asia) then purchased the Hong Kong subsidiary of
Fortis Bank, originally the Hong Kong branch of the
Banque Belge pour l'Étranger, and rebranded it under its own name on 10 October 2005. In June 2005, ICBC established
ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management as a China
joint venture with
Credit Suisse First Boston and
COSCO, with the three partners respectively holding 55, 25, and 20 percent of the venture's equity. Subsequently, ICBC bought out COSCO's stake and acquired an additional 5 percent from Credit Suisse. As of 2006, ICBC had 2.5 million corporate customers and 150 million individual customers.
Initial public offering In the runup to its planned
initial public offering, on 28 April 2006, three "strategic investors" injected US$3.7 billion into ICBC: •
Goldman Sachs purchased a 5.75% stake for US$2.6 billion, the largest sum
Goldman Sachs has ever invested. •
Dresdner Bank invested US$1 billion. •
American Express invested US$200 million. In 2010,
Agricultural Bank of China broke ICBC's IPO record when it raised $22.1 billion. China's largest commercial bank was also the first company to debut simultaneously on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges. ICBC raised at least US$14 billion in Hong Kong (
H-shares) and another US$5.1 billion in Shanghai (
A-shares). Due to heavy subscriptions, the
greenshoe (i.e. over-allotment) placements were exercised and ICBC's take rose to US$21.9 billion (17% of ICBC's market value before the IPO), divided in US$16 billion in Hong Kong and US$5.9 billion in Shanghai. Following the global offering, the
free float of shares was 22.14% of the
market capitalization. At the end of its first day of trading, the bank's shares closed up almost 15% at HK$3.52 in Hong Kong, compared with the listing price of HK$3.07, which was set at the top of the indicative range due to the strong demand. According to
Bloomberg, ICBC's
market capitalisation at the end of trade based on its Hong Kong shares was US$156.3 billion, making its equity the world's fifth highest among banks, just behind
JPMorgan Chase. Meanwhile, ICBC's Shanghai-listed A-shares recorded more modest gains and ended up 5.1% from the offering price of RMB 3.12.
Later developments In July 2007, ICBC was ranked 30th in the world in terms of revenue. In August 2008, ICBC became the second Chinese bank since 1991 to gain US federal approval to establish a branch in New York City. ICBC had signed a lease with the
Trump Organization for office space in the
Trump Tower in 2008. ICBC was Trump Tower's largest office tenant as of 2012. By October 2020, Donald Trump received $5.4 million from ICBC via the Trump Tower lease. In June 2009, ICBC spent 80.25 million Canadian dollars (US$58.53 million) to acquire a 70% stake in the
Bank of East Asia (BEA). By the end of 2009, the number of credit cards issued exceeded 52 million, a 33% increase equivalent to nearly 13 million cards compared to the previous year. Including other types of bank cards, this bank has issued more than 280 million cards, becoming the 4th largest credit card issuer in the world. On 24 January 2011, ICBC opened a branch office in
Madrid. On 20 May 2011, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. established two branches in
Pakistan, one in
Karachi and the other in
Islamabad. On 18 August 2011, ICBC passed the examination from
State Bank of Pakistan and started its business in Pakistan. During November 2012, ICBC acquired from
Standard Bank an 80% stake (valued at $600 million) of the former subsidiary of
BankBoston in
Argentina, which Standard Bank had purchased in 2006. This was the largest operation of a Chinese bank in Latin America. In Argentina, the bank has ~1,000,000 individual customers, ~30,000 companies of all categories and more than 1600 corporate companies. During the
2013 Korean crisis, ICBC halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. It was announced at the end of July 2013 that South Africa's
Standard Bank was in talks to sell its markets business in London to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for more than $500 million. The transaction was completed on , after which the London-based operation has been known as ICBC Standard Bank. In 2014, ICBC was the largest company in the world according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, with revenue reaching US$148.7 billion and profit amounting to US$42.7 billion. On 24 September 2014, ICBC Kuwait Branch officially opened in Kuwait City as the first and currently the only Chinese bank in Kuwait. Meanwhile, it is also the fourth branch of ICBC in the Middle East, following branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. On 25 May 2015, the Company further strengthened its presence in the Middle East and Europe by purchasing Turkey's TekstilBank and forming its
ICBC Turkey subsidiary. ICBC Financial Services, the bank's brokerage unit, provided about $88 billion of repo financing at the end of 2015, up from $59 billion two years ago, according to regulatory filings. The figures are before netting agreements that can be used to reduce overall assets and liabilities. Almost all the repo financing that ICBC provides is on U.S. government bonds. On 18 November 2016, the bank obtained a license to take deposits in
Russia. ICBC launched robo-advisor service to its wealth-management operations in 2017. As of April 2019, ICBC had lent US$100 billion for
Belt and Road Initiative projects. In BRI-participating countries, ICBC has 124 branches. The attack was against the US unit of ICBC, which at the time was considered the world's largest lender by assets, as reported by
Bloomberg. The bank was hacked by
LockBit, a ransomware group described by
Bloomberg as "a criminal gang with ties to Russia." Lockbit ultimately claimed that the bank paid the ransom, a statement which
Reuters was unable to verify. ==Finances==