Founded in 1908, the Bank is one of the major financial services providers in China. The Bank's business scope includes commercial banking, insurance and offshore financial services. It has branches in Hong Kong, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Frankfurt, Macau and Ho Chi Minh City and representative offices in London, Sydney and Taipei. Subsidiaries controlled by the Bank include Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management Co., Ltd, Bank of Communications International Trust Co., Ltd, BoCommLife Insurance Company Limited, Dayi Bocom Xingmin Rural Bank Co., Ltd and Zhejiang Anji BOCOM Rural Bank Co., Ltd. In addition, the Bank is also the largest shareholder of Jiangsu Changshu Rural Commercial Bank Co., Ltd."

Voluntary initiatives

• Carbon Disclosure Project

The bank declared its CSR policy improvements listed below. You can find policy texts under the "Documents" section if the bank has disclosed any of them.

2008

• Designed and implemented "green credit" policies for engineering and construction projects.
• Defined and published realistic environmental protection standards and increased the level of communication about green credit programs.
• Released a notification about their new green credit rules and regulations for engineering and construction projects.
• Developed interim measures for managing and administering bank project loans.
• Developed a permanent green credit classifications and operations manual.

2009

The Bank produced a “Compliance Policy” and “Compliance Manual”, designed to make the company's business management activities, laws, regulatory requirements, business rules, self-regulatory organization of industry guidelines, codes of conduct and ethics (hereinafter referred to as the 'Compliance Rules') consistent with the law to avoid the company being subject to legal sanctions, regulatory sanctions, financial loss and reputation loss for failing to follow the Compliance Rules. The Bank developed further environmental and social policies but with the exception of the Compliance Rules, other policies have not been made public.

2010

• With new or revised system approaches, developed guidelines for 31 industry-specific “green credit” administrative and operational requirements.
• In the 2008 “Communications Bank Manual for Identification and Classification of Environmental Protection Operations” improved the “Three Colors Seven Categories” classification criteria, making green color one type of customer segment, a refinement aimed at managing environmentally-outstanding customers.
• Closely followed the Department of Environmental Protection environment-friendly economic policies supporting the development of a comprehensive directory of industry-specific processes, equipment and products under the energy-saving and environmental protection requirements as an important basis for decision-making credit business.

2011

In 2011, the bank released the Guidelines for Strengthening Green Credit Construction and 2011 Guidelines for Green Credit Policy, to further formulate a green credit system.

2012

• After thorough deliberation, the board of directors issued the "Bank of Communications Green Credit Policies." The implementation of the green credit policies was established as part of the bank's long-term strategy. Bank of Communications furthermore drafted the "2012 Green Credit Policy Guidelines," which creates specific environmental, safety, health and other green credit requirements for 50 industries, and further strengthens the role of credit limiting credit access.
• The "Green Credit Implementation Measures" formulates specific measures in the areas of organization and management, identity management, markets access, credit assessment, management of credit extensions, internal supervision, and public transparency.Bank of Communications also issued a notification regarding the "Continued Enrichment and Deepening of Green Credit Policies," which will integrate safety and health aspects with green credit policies, and create new demands in the areas of energy consumption, pollution, land, health, safety, resettlement, ecological protection, climate change and other environmental and social factors. The "Green Credit Classification and Operation Manual" revises and improves the core definition and classification standards for 7 green credit indicators.