The story
Origins, and until 2008
BEA was co-founded in Hong Kong on 14 November 1918 and officially opened for business on 4 January 1919. The idea of a local Hong Kong bank to blend East and West, essentially by embracing the style of a Chinese, family-run bank but also adopting modern accounting and banking methods, came from Kan Tong-po (簡東浦). Kan had the necessary banking background but needed the financial support of the Li brothers (Li Koon-chun and Li Tse-fong) and the sociopolitical support of Sir Shouson Chow, who would become co-founders, along with several other prominent local Hong Kong Chinese businessmen, including Fung Ping Shan (馮平山).
While Kan later sold his stake in the bank in the run-up to Hong Kong's handover, the Li family's influence in the bank continues to run deep today, with Sir David Li (3rd generation) being chairman, and his sons Adrian Li and Brian Li (4th generation) being co-CEOs.
BEA expanded rapidly internationally after opening. In 1920, just one year after the bank's official opening, BEA opened its first branches outside of Hong Kong, in Shanghai and Ho Chi Minh City. In 1952, BEA opened its Singapore branch, located in Raffles Place at 60 Robinson Road. BEA would later enter the North American market in 1991 (though operations would later be sold to Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in January 2010), and mainland China in 1992.
The late 1930s to 1940s were tough on the bank, as the Second Sino-Japanese War and later Japanese occupation of Hong Kong resulted in heavy losses, with many of BEA's assets seized. Even after the war, the Chinese Civil War and later the United Nations embargo on China negatively affected Hong Kong's economy, and as a result, BEA.
In 1965, Hong Kong experienced a city-wide banking crisis which saw other local Hong Kong banks suffer bank runs and hostile takeovers, such as Hang Seng Bank. BEA, however, was undisturbed but became much more conservative thereafter.
In 1984, after the Sino-British Joint Declaration, BEA refused to follow the lead of many leading firms at the time to move their headquarters overseas, and instead decided to double down and reaffirm their "Hong Kong roots".
Traditionally more focused on internal growth rather than external acquisitions, in 1995, BEA made its first acquisition when it acquired United Chinese Bank (simplified Chinese: 中国联合银行; traditional Chinese: 中國聯合銀行), with the merger being completed in 2001. BEA also acquired First Pacific Bank in 2000, and that merger was completed in 2002.
2008 to 2018
On 24 September 2008, BEA experienced a serious test in the form of the worst bank run in its history. BEA had to issue a statement to counter "malicious rumours" about its stability, as queues of customers seeking to withdraw funds formed outside some of its Hong Kong branches. It condemned the rumour mongers, declaring that it had sufficient funds to meet customers' requests, and noting that its capital adequacy ratio was above the industry average, at 14.6 percent. A statement by Joseph Yam, the then chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, dismissed the rumour and strongly supported the bank, adding that funds would be made available to the bank if required but that no request had been made. Earlier in the week, the bank had been forced to restate its previous half-year's earnings downwards by nearly 12 percent after it was revealed that one of its staff had conducted unauthorised trades and then buried the losses.
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In October 2015, BEA entered into agreement with Sinopac Securities to sell BEA Wealth Management Services (Taiwan) Limited and Tung Shing Holdings Company Limited. BEA chairman and CEO David Li said that the disposals would allow BEA to rationalise its securities business in Greater China region. There was no disclosure of the transaction amount involved in this sales.
As the banking sector and BEA continued to face challenges, BEA launched a 3-year cost-cutting plan in the beginning of 2016 to save HKD 700 million by 2018, by reducing dividend payouts, controlling costs, and trimming assets. The saving target was about 8% of its cost base in 2015. It was expected that 40% of savings coming from business alignment, 25% from restructuring middle to back offices, and remaining via branch automation and streamlining. By June 2016, BEA already slashed 180 jobs and closed down 22 securities brokerages outlets. Other key assets sold during this period of cost cutting included its holdings in Tricor, a professional services firm to private equity firm Permira for HKD 6.47 billion (profit of HKD 3.1 billion), and various consumer finance assets to China moneylender QL Finance for HKD 1.08 billion.
On 29 June 2018, after 34 years of being a constituent of the Hang Seng Index, BEA was cut during the quarterly review of Hang Seng Index composition, effective 10 September 2018. The index said that the Bank of East Asia did not meet the turnover and market capitalisation minimums.
In late 2018, BEA began to venture into investment banking by setting up a debt capital markets team based in Hong Kong.
Since 2019
BEA began 2019 by celebrating its centennial on 2 January 2019, with a reception at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre attended by various business and political leaders from Hong Kong.
On 1 July 2019, David Li stepped down as CEO after 38 years (but still retaining his Chairmanship), and was replaced by his sons Adrian and Brian Li as co-CEO's.
BEA faced a difficult 2019, with loan writedowns in China and unprecedented scale of protests in Hong Kong affecting business.
In January 2025, The bank teamed up with Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank (GRCB) to broaden its cross-boundary wealth management (WMC) Southbound business, marking its first WMC partnership outside the BEA group.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bank of East Asia, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4