Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia)

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The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia), or more commonly known as ICBC (Asia) (Traditional Chinese: 中國工商銀行(亞洲), 工銀亞洲) is a licensed bank incorporated in Hong Kong. It is a subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

[edit] History

ICBC acquired Union Bank (友聯銀行), founded in Hong Kong in 1964, and traded on Hong Kong Stock Exchange( SEHK: 0349 since 1973), on August 21, 2000; ICBC then renamed its acquisition ICBC (Asia) in July 2001.

On April 30, 2004, ICBC (Asia) acquired the retail banking business (but not the wholesale banking business) of Fortis Bank Asia HK from Fortis. Fortis Bank Asia became a wholly owned subsidiary of ICBC (Asia)and reverted to its earlier name, Belgian Bank. On October 10, 2005, all Belgian Bank's branches were rebranded as ICBC (Asia). This merger has resulted in ICBC (Asia) rising to the position of being the sixth largest bank on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, from its former position of tenth.