Chinese General Chamber of Commerce
Soon after Dee C. Chuan's election as 14th President of the Filipino Chinese General Chamber of Commerce Inc. in 1919, he was only thirty-one then, he began discussions with the other top businessmen in Chinatown for organizing a bank for Chinese businessmen. To form a Chinese bank in Manila, Dee faced two key problems: mobilizing the necessary capital, which he estimated to be around P5 million, and acquiring banking expertise. Fortunately, during a recent trip to Fujian, Dee had met a Chinese Indonesian businessman named Huang Yizhu (Oei Ik-Tjoe in Indonesian). Huang became the equivalent of an “angel investor” for China Bank. He put in P1 million, bought 20% of the shares and took a board seat, but did not interfere with operations. Dee assembled a group of ten Chinese from Manila to provide the rest of the capital and form the board, along with himself and