The Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) is the second largest commercial banking group in Hong Kong in terms of assets and customer deposits, with more than 300 branches in Hong Kong. It was established on October 1, 2001 from a merger of 12 subsidiaries and associates of the Bank of China in Hong Kong, and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2002. As of the end of 2003, the bank had HK$763 billion in assets and earned net profit of HK$8 billion in 2003. BOCHK is one of the three banks which issue banknotes for Hong Kong, the biggest member and a founder of the JETCO ATM and payment system, and the designated clearing bank in Hong Kong for transactions involving the renminbi, Mainland China's currency. It is legally separate from its parent, Bank of China (BOC), although they maintain close relations in management and administration and cooperate in several areas including reselling BOC's insurance and securities services. It also shares its Hong Kong headquarters, the Bank of China Tower, with its parent; completed in 1988, this was the first building outside of the US to exceed 1,000 feet in height and recognised for its distinctive architecture.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_China_%28Hong_Kong%29

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1581: Francis Drake completed a circumnavigation of the globe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake)

1949: Twelve nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty, creating NATO. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO)

1968: Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King%2C_Jr.)

1976: Norodom Sihanouk abdicated from the role of leader of Cambodia, and is arrested by Khmer Rouge. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norodom_Sihanouk)

1979: President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan was executed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulfikar_Ali_Bhutto)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth... When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world That is when, and only when We come to it. -- Maya Angelou -- (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou)