Agricultural Bank of China Limited, also known as AgBank, is one of the big four banks in the People’s Republic of China. It was founded in 1951 and has its headquarters in Beijing and its branches throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Seoul, and Singapore. ABC has 320 million retail customers, 2.7 million corporate clients and nearly 24,000 branches
Beginning
The Agricultural Bank of China ABC for short) was established in 1951. The head office is located at Jianguomen Nei Street, Beijing. It is a large state-owned bank managed by the central government and a national deputy ministerial unit. Agricultural Bank of China is an integral part of China’s financial system, provides various corporate banking and retail banking products and services, and simultaneously develops financial market business and asset management business. The business scope also covers investment banking, fund management, financial leasing, life insurance, and other fields.
Road to Success
It is China’s third-largest lender by assets. ABC went public in mid-2010, fetching the world’s biggest-ever initial public offering IPO as of 2011, it ranks eighth among the top 1,000 world banks. Meanwhile, the fourth global 2000 named it the 25th largest public company in the world.
The Agricultural Bank of China is one of China’s leading banks, and it has its origins in lending money to farmers in rural areas of China. Now the banks have developed on since then and now lends money to agriculture and businesses and industry but still specializes in developing rural China. Originally state-owned, the bank in 2009 became a joint-stock limited liability company. the following year it completed a tremendously successful IPO raising over twenty-two billion dollars and was listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong
Stock Exchanges.
Agricultural Bank of China operates about 31,000 branches and offices throughout China aspiring to become a global financial institution.
It already has a presence in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, London, and New York.
Challenges
The central bank in 1952, the first bank bearing the name Agricultural Bank of China was founded in 1955, but it was merged into the central bank in 1957. In 1963, the Chinese government formed another agriculture pack it was also much into the central bank two years later. Today’s Agriculture Bank of China was founded in February 1979, it was restructured to form a holding company called it will provide cultural buying of China.
It was listed on the Shanghai and the Hong Kong Stock Exchanges in July 2010.
Failures
In April 2007, ABC was the victim of the largest bank theft in Chinese history. This occurred when two vault managers at the Handan branch of the bank in Hebei province embezzled almost 51 million yuan.
In 2012, ABC started a project to migrate to the Avaloq Banking System.
During the 2013 Korean crisis, the Agricultural Bank of China halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.
Achievements
ABC Wins Two Special Honours in Corporate Social Responsibility on 2013-01-05.
ABC Wins Award for Corporate Culture Building on 2012-12-24
ABC was awarded “Excellent Service Provider to SMEs
ABC Wins PMI (China) Project Management Award
Subsidies
ABC International Holdings Limited
Agricultural Bank of China (UK) Limited
Agricultural Bank of China Limited Dubai Branch
Agricultural Bank of China Limited, Frankfurt Branch