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and persons of Portuguese descent.
To a degree banks symbolise power, and the People's Republic gained in prestige when its 17-storey Bank of China slightly overtopped the Hong Kong Bank in 1950. The latter then erected a flagpole, so it is said, which gave it a few extra feet. In 1959, however, the then new Chartered Bank rose about three metres above the old Bank of China. With the new 42-storey standard Chartered Bank, completed in 1990, looking down on the Hong Kong Bank claimed to be the most cost-efficient bank building in the world it seems that, to some degree, history is repeating itself. Nevertheless, this is well short of the 70-floor new Bank of China (also completed in 1990) which, for a few years, was the tallest building in Asia.
Hong Kong Bank
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Unlike the Chartered Bank which is essentially British, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, which is today the largest bank headquartered in Asia outside Japan, has always prided itself on being international. Nevertheless, the original prospectus of the 'Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited' stated the aim was: "for an institution to be operated on sound Scottish banking principles."
Most of its senior staff have, from the outset, thus been British.
The Hong Kong Bank was founded in 1864, on co-operative lines. Business commenced in 1865 (by which time six banks were already established in Hong Kong), and nearly all the principal firms in the Colony were represented. The purpose of Wayfoong (?) (meaning 'Abundance of Remittances' which first appeared, in Chinese, on bank notes in 1881) was to serve the needs of merchants of the China coast and to finance the growing trade between China, Europe and North America. The traders of old felt their needs would be served better if they had a bank (in Hong Kong it is often spoken of as The Bank) which was owned, managed and operated locally.
Although the provisional committee was chaired by the British firm Dent and Company its members were far from being exclusively British. They included Americans, Germans, Scandinavians and