Қытай-Француз Индустриялық Банкінің Тарихы

Former Paris based bank

The Banque Industrielle de Chine (BIC, "Industrial Bank of China"; 中法實業銀行) was a French bank with its main activities in China and French Indochina. It was created in 1913, expanded rapidly, but closed in 1921 because of the political context in China, causing a political controversy in France. Its activity was continued by the Franco Chinese Bank, in China until the 1950s and in Indochina until the 1970s.

From the late 19th century, the Banque de l'Indochine was tasked by the French government to support French commercial, industrial and strategic interests in China, but its conservative stance elicited frustration in French official circles. It was perceived in contrast to the greater dynamism of its British and German counterparts, especially the Deutsch Asiatische Bank. In an internal Foreign Ministry note of , diplomat Philippe Berthelot, who in 1907 would become the ministry's head of Asian affairs, developed the case for a new institution that would take over the existing Chinese offices of the Banque de l'Indochine and finance accelerated French inroads into the Chinese market. These concerns became more salient following the 1911 Revolution in China, as French diplomats and political forces such as the Radical Party were eager to support the republican party, Republic of China, whereas the Banque de l'Indochine was closer to conservative and reactionary circles which did not share the same enthusiasm. In Beijing, Alexis Joseph Pernotte, a banker who had lived in China since 1903 and had led the Tianjin branch of the Banque de l'Indochine since 1910, promoted the project of a new bank, and in July 1912 obtained a preliminary agreement from Prime Minister Lu Zhengxiang and Finance Minister Xiong Xiling that the Chinese government would support the venture and subscribe one third of its initial capital. During a session of the National Assembly on , Xiong presented the future bank as an instrument of Chinese sovereignty against the so called China Consortium of established foreign banks and their colonial powers, and referred to it as "our bank". Contrary to the other European banks in China, this bank had Chinese capital and was primarily focused on infrastructure development. Xiong emphasized the depth of the Paris financial market, which the bank would allow the Chinese government to access for its future borrowing, thus justifying the Franco Chinese partnership from the standpoint of China's national interest

[[File:Banque Industrielle de Chine 1920. jpg|thumb|Share certificate, 1920 In line with the previous year's agreement, the Chinese government owned a third of the bank's equity capital. From the start and until the closure in 1921, the bank's chairman was Philippe's brother André Berthelot who was chosen by both the French and the Chinese and Pernotte was its chief executive. Businessman Charles Victor and a bank he controlled, the Société auxiliaire de Crédit, were instrumental in the bank's initial financing. Victor's business ventures collapsed the next year, however, and the Société auxiliaire de Crédit was liquidated in December 1914. The bank was incorporated in Paris, where its board of directors held its meetings. On it moved its seat to 74 rue Saint Lazare, after having initially been hosted in Charles Victor's business offices. In China, it was managed from Beijing, and opened a branch in Shanghai in 1914. It had its first major project in 1914, underwriting bonds for the construction of port facilities in Pukou District, across the Yangtze from Nanjing. It further opened offices in Tianjin in early 1916, in Hong Kong and Saigon in 1917, and sub offices of the latter in Hanoi and across the Chinese border in Yunnan fu (now Kunming) in 1918. In 1918, like the Banque de l'Indochine, it opened an office in Vladivostok to serve the Allied military base there during the Siberian intervention. The bank's expansion accelerated with the business expansion that immediately followed the end of World War I. In March 1920, it became the first French bank licensed to operate in New York. By late 1920 it had added more offices in China (Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hankou, Mukden, and Shantou) and elsewhere (Antwerp, London, Lyon, Marseille, Singapore, and Yokohama).

Like other foreign banks in China at the time, the Banque Industrielle de Chine issued paper currency in the concessions where it had established branch offices.