Sheng Xuanhuai
The bank was organised as a joint-stock firm. The Chinese official Sheng Xuanhuai, who was a patron of the bank, adopted the internal regulations of HSBC, and its senior managers were foreign professionals. Following the early guidelines of the HSBC, the total number of banknotes issued by the Imperial Bank of China was at no time to exceed its paid-up capital, furthermore these guidelines also stipulated that ⅓ of it would have to be covered by a reserve in hard currency. Balance sheet data of the Imperial Bank of China is fragmentary but it suggests that these guidelines on banknote issuance may not have been actively used after 1906.