China Construction Bank Corporation Logo

China Construction Bank Corporation was established on October 1, 1954, when the Chinese government founded the People’s Construction Bank of China during the First Five-Year Plan. The bank was created to allocate state funds for construction and industrial projects, not to operate as a normal commercial lender. Its accounts financed projects such as the Great Hall of the People, First Automobile Works in Changchun, Anshan steel expansion, and the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge.

In 1979, under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, the bank came under the State Council and gradually took on commercial functions. In the early 1980s, China separated specialized banks from the People’s Bank of China: the Bank of China handled foreign trade, the Agricultural Bank of China served the rural sector, and the Construction Bank focused on infrastructure and capital projects.

A turning point came in 1994, when the China Development Bank took over policy lending. In 1996, the institution adopted the name China Construction Bank. In 2004, the government injected about $45 billion into CCB and the Bank of China to clean up their balance sheets and prepare them for international markets.

In 2005, Bank of America bought a 9% stake in CCB for $3 billion, while Singapore’s Temasek invested $2.5 billion. In October 2005, CCB raised about $9.2 billion in its Hong Kong IPO, the first listing among China’s four major state banks, alongside Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China. By 2016, it had branches and subsidiaries in more than 30 countries. Bank of America exited in full by 2013, while cooperation continued until 2016.