Bank of East Asia (abbreviated to BEA) is among the major Hong Kong banks (ranked 3rd). It was founded in 1918, and now has a wide range of services and products in the local market.
Both are tailored to investment needs, wealth management, and personal and commercial banking. Customers in mainland China and Hong Kong are catered for, as well as a number of major industries across the globe.
There are now 10,800 employees across the 60 mainland China branches, 91 Hong Kong branches, and 30 USA, Canada, and UK branches. BAE Hong Kong owns 88 branches within the city, along with 7 i-Financial Centres and 63 SupremeGold Centres.
The Bank of East Asia is now on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, being a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Index.
It was the first bank overseas to offer debit cards in the Yuan-denomination within mainland China (since May 2008), taking advantage of the key restriction removal within the country.
Products and Services
Debit cards were offered with China’s UnionPay, the only company offering bank cards within the country. This would help customers have more access to their money at their convenience. It was also the only foreign bank within China to offer Alipay payments direct to bank accounts, and offer independent credit cards.
A great feature of BEA is that they provide various accounts that serve the individual needs of the customers. A few examples are the i-Account that gives a customer the benefits of integrated banking services; or the advanced Supreme Account that supplies the same basic services as the i-Account, although it allows special privileges for customers such as exclusive offers on banking and investment services.
BEA HK has made it one of their many objectives to ensure the satisfaction of international customers, by providing a worldwide available ‘Cyberbanking’ service. In accordance with their mission statement, BEA offers a stress-free, simple process of Internet banking that allows customers to access their personal and/or business banking anywhere in the world. Additionally, the BEA HK bank offers many perks with their international facility, from comprehensive retail services to foreign exchange.