# Agricultural Bank of China

The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), also known as AgBank, is a Chinese partially state-owned multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Beijing, China. It is one of the "big four" banks in China, and the second largest bank in the world by total assets, behind the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. ABC was founded on 10 July 1951, and has its headquarters in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It has 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. 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) at the time, since overtaken by the Saudi Arabian state-run petroleum enterprise, Saudi Aramco. In 2011, it ranked eighth among the Top 1000 World Banks, by 2015, it ranked third in Forbes' 13th annual Global 2000 list and in 2017 it ranked fifth. In 2023, Agricultural Bank of China was ranked #4 in Forbes' Global 2000 (World's Largest Public Companies). It is considered a systemically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.

## History

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, ABC has been formed and abolished several times. On 10 July 1951, two banks of the Republic of China, Farmers Bank of China and Cooperation Bank, merged to form the Agricultural Cooperation Bank, which ABC regards as its ancestor. However, the bank was merged into People's Bank of China, 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 agricultural bank which was also merged into the central bank two years later. Today's Agricultural Bank of China was founded in February 1979. As the People's Bank of China began spinning off its commercial banking functions after 1978, ABC's focus on providing farmers with financial services increased.$^{:225}$
ABC was restructured to form a holding company called Agricultural Bank of China Limited. It was listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in July 2010.
In 2012, ABC started a project to migrate to the Avaloq Banking System.
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.
In 2023, the asset management division of Agricultural Bank of China ABC WM together with BNP Paribas Asset Management launched an asset management joint venture. BNP Paribas ABC Wealth is majority owned by BNPP AM (51%), ABC Wealth Management holds 49%. Alexandre Werno became the CEO.
As of 2024, Agricultural Bank of China continues to operate in Russia despite international sanctions imposed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. While many Western financial institutions have withdrawn from the Russian market, Chinese banks, including AgBank, have expanded their operations and influence, quadrupling their credit commitments to Russian banks by March 2023. ABC together with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank increased their joint commitment to Russia by $2.2 billion within 14 months of the launch of the Russian attack on Ukraine, reaching 9.7 billion dollars. This financial support, largely conducted in yuan rather than dollars or euros, aligns with Beijing's broader strategy to promote its currency as an alternative to the U.S. dollar. Critics argue that such actions undermine international efforts to isolate Russia economically and indirectly enable its continued aggression against Ukraine.

## Incidents

In April 2007, ABC was the victim of the largest bank theft in Chinese history. This occurred when two vault managers at a branch in Handan, Hebei embezzled almost 51 million yuan (US$7.5 million).

## 2010 initial public offering

ABC was the last of the "big four" banks in China to go public. In 2010, A shares and H shares of Agricultural Bank of China were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange respectively. Each share was set to cost between 2.7RMB and 3.3RMB per share. H shares were set to cost between HK$2.88 and HK$3.48 per share. The final share price for the IPO launch was issued on 7 July 2010. On completion in August 2010 it became the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO) surpassing the one set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006 of US$21.9 billion. This record has since been beaten by another Chinese company, Alibaba, in 2014.
ABC raised US$19.21 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai on 6 July 2010, before overallotment options were exercised. On 13 August 2010, ABC officially completed the world's largest initial public offering, raising a total of $22.1 billion after both Shanghai and Hong Kong's over-allotments were fully exercised. The IPO was once thought to be able to raise US$30 billion, but weaker market sentiment dampened the value. Despite a 15-month low for the Chinese benchmark index, the IPO was said to have gone smoothly.
CICC, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the Hong Kong offering, with JPMorgan, Macquarie, Deutsche Bank and ABC's own securities unit also involved. CICC, CITIC Securities, Galaxy and Guotai Junan Securities handled the Shanghai portion. ABC sold about 40% of the Shanghai offering to 27 strategic investors, including China Life Insurance and China State Construction. They were subject to lock-up periods of 12–18 months. Eleven cornerstone investors were selected for its Hong Kong share offering, including Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority, taking a combined $5.45 billion worth of shares.
On Aug 01, 2024, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced MOUs worth $50 billion with six Chinese financial institutions, including the Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China.

## List of governors

| Name (English) | Name (Chinese) | Tenure begins | Tenure ends |
| He Songting [zh] | 何松亭 | July 1951 | May 1952 |
| Qiao Peixin [zh] | 乔培新 | February 1955 | August 1955 |
| Li Shaoyu [zh] | 李绍禹 | August 1955 | May 1957 |
| Hu Jingyun [zh] | 胡景沄 | October 1963 | November 1965 |
| Fang Gao | 方皋 | June 1979 | July 1981 |
| Li Shaoyu [zh] | 李绍禹 | July 1981 | April 1982 |
| Han Lei [zh] | 韩雷 | April 1982 | June 1985 |
| Ma Yongwei | 马永伟 | July 1985 | June 1994 |
| Shi Jiliang [zh] | 史纪良 | July 1994 | October 1997 |
| He Linxiang [zh] | 何林祥 | October 1997 | February 2000 |
| Shang Fulin | 尚福林 | February 2000 | December 2002 |
| Yang Mingsheng [zh] | 杨明生 | September 2003 | July 2007 |
| Xiang Junbo | 项俊波 | July 2007 | January 2009 |
| Zhang Yun [zh] | 张云 | January 2009 | December 2015 |
| Zhao Huan [zh] | 赵欢 | January 2016 | September 2018 |
| Zhang Qingsong [zh] | 张青松 | November 2019 | September 2022 |
| Fu Wanjun [zh] | 付万军 | December 2022 | |