What It Does: Bank of China specialises in providing services such as private banking, issuance of loans, mortgages, and credit cards, insurance plans, corporate banking, wealth management, securities, and asset management.
Mission: Bank of China’s mission statement is to provide quality services to its clients to meet their financial needs and fulfil their rising expectations.
Size and Presence: Bank of China has a workforce comprising hundreds of employees across 12 branch offices in Singapore.
Best Known For: Bank of China is the 4th largest bank in the world. As of 2019, the Bank of China was the 9th largest bank by market capitalisation and is widely regarded as one of the most important financial institutions in Asia.
The Good Bits: The BOC is the perfect place for interns and graduates because of the developmental prospects it offers. The staff enjoy mouth-watering benefits. Employment comes with job security.
The Not-So-Good Bits: The pay can be better.
The origin of this prominent Asian bank goes back to the formative years of the 20th century. In 1905, the Daqing Hubu Bank was founded by the Qing government. Three years after its inception, the bank was renamed Daqing Bank. Everything changed with the establishment of the Republic of China and the appointment of Chen Jintao as the overseer of the country’s financial reform. The latter event led to the rebranding of Daqing Bank to Bank of China. BOC grew to become the 2nd biggest lander in China and the 5th largest bank globally in terms of market capitalisation.
In 2000, BOC was ranked as the 4th largest company globally. During the first decade of the 21st century, the BOC expanded internationally and established a presence in more than 20 countries worldwide, including Singapore. In 2010, the BOC became the first Chinese bank to offer renminbi products to Americans. In 2015, BOC established several global commodity centres in Singapore, making it the first foreign country to have such facilities from the bank. Today, BOC is widely regarded as one of the big four banks globally.
BOC has an admirable culture that it has sustained over the years because of four core values: prudence, excellence, openness & inclusiveness and collaboration. The company is like a big community housing diverse individuals with similar objectives. The BOC has fostered a conducive working environment for employees of diverse ethnicities, nationalities, gender, ages, socioeconomic backgrounds, marital status, and so on to collaborate towards the organisation's growth.
The atmosphere welcomes recent graduates and interns thanks to friendly and supportive colleagues. The bank is open and transparent with its employees and values their contributions to its growth. The company's dress code is corporate wear.
The BOC offers some programmes designed to accelerate the professional development of its human resources. Through its campus recruitment, the bank offers a Management Trainee programme that nurtures bright, young talents to become future leaders in the banking industry and be ready to handle challenges that may be thrown at them. The programme includes classroom experience, on-the-job training, mentoring, orientation, job rotation, performance coaching, etc.
These trainees will also enjoy some overseas exposure in another country within the South-East Asia region. This will give them deep insights into the regional financial markets and enable them to build a strong professional network.
The Bank of China screens its applications and subjects the selected applicants to a phone or virtual interview. This is followed by a pre-employment interview to assess your skills. The successful candidates will be offered the job and inducted into the trainee program.
The BOC pays its fresh graduates an average salary of SGD 40,000,
BOC supported several Singaporean communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and has donated to several non-profit organisations in the country.