The China Bank restoration project
WALA LANG
Chinatown is jumping. New buildings are up and more are rising. The ultramodern Binondo-Intramuros bridge has opened (to be sure, over the objections of heritage people). The latest is the magnificent restoration of the China Bank Building at the corner of Dasmariñas and Juan Luna Streets, dramatically lit at night like a beacon, an inspiration.
Until the 1960s, Escolta was Metro Manila’s Greenbelt and Glorietta combined and Juan Luna, Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas. That was where Citibank, Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, BPI, China Bank, FGU-Insular Life, and the Manila Stock Exchange were. Muelle de la Industria was to Manila what the riverfront Bund was to Shanghai. When Makati became the financial center, Binondo slumbered.
Now headquartered on Makati’s Paseo de Roxas, China Bank decided to restore its old Binondo head office to mark the hundred years since its founding in 1920. It was a big production. The façade had become shabby and decorative flourishes corroded; two floors had been added to the building’s original five; the gorgeous ground ironwork was gone. A mezzanine had been reduced the height of the grand banking hall and, not least, the building itself was shortened with the raising of street levels.
The restoration was meticulously accurate and cost a lot but the outcome is wonderful. The façade is almost as it looked on its inauguration in 1924, elegant with arches on the ground floor and six Corinthian columns rising three floors above.
THE RISE AND RISE OF CHINA BANK The FINEX Group and China Bank’s Alex Escucha before a portrait of founder Dee C. Cbuan by Fernando Amorsolo and I-beams added in the building restoration. The group before the century-old iron grilles fronting the Dasmarinas Street sidewalk.
Restoration architect Manuel Noche saw to it that restoration was faithful to the original. The inch-thick iron grilles were found intact when the marble slabs and concrete were chipped away at sidewalk level. As in years past, passersby can now glimpse the large banking hall. Old-fashioned teller cages are no more but the elaborate marble floors have been reproduced. With the higher street level, one descends a few steps to the former floor level and experiences the grandeur of the room that is 18 feet high.
The building is a hundred years old and has been shaken up by World War II, earthquakes, traffic vibration on the soft ground. I-beams with Sumitomo rubber dampers were added in the form of triangular trusses to ensure the structure’s survival for at least the next hundred years.
Up the elevators still with brightly polished brass doors is the museum that occupies the entire fourth floor. Through a portrait gallery, photographs, memorabilia, and informative wall text, visitors learn not only the history of the bank but also the development of Philippine business, particularly the Chinese business community.
Dee C. Chuan, then 31 years old, was already the Philippines’ “Lumber King.” He was into logging and lumber processing and manufacturing. At age 17, he was put in charge of the lumber distribution company founded by his father. In the 14 years since, Dee grew and diversified company operations. By 1921 the company could produce over 20 million board feet of lumber a year and was exporting five million board feet to the US. Such was the stature of Dee that at that young age he was elected president of the Philippine Chinese General Chamber of Commerce.
Chinese entrepreneurs then had a difficult time getting financing. The major banks, First National City Bank of New York, Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Philippine National Bank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, were run by Westerners and Western-trained Filipinos who did not appreciate the Chinese way of doing business. They relied on balance sheets, income and cash flow statements, whereas the Chinese, basically secretive over their finances, attached great importance to character and business as well as personal reputation. To them word of honor, even verbal, was as good as gold.
On Dec. 19, 1919 therefore, Dee invited 10 top Chinese businessmen to dinner and broached the idea of a bank that would extend credit to Chinese businessmen taking into account Eastern values and practices.
The idea took fire. China Banking Corporation was incorporated and opened its doors on Aug. 16, 1920 with authorized capital stock of ₱20 million, of which ₱2.6 million was paid up by some 500 shareholders. Its first officers were American, Chinese, and Filipino professionals, even as the board of directors took a direct hand in credit evaluation and approval. The bank grew so fast that in four years it was able to build and move into the building that had just been restored. That was the year Albino SyCip, a practicing lawyer, joined the bank as vice president. He soon became president and was with the bank for 53 years until he retired at age 89 in 1977, by then known as the “dean of Philippine banking,” who personified the values of the ideal banker.
The bank is as strong as ever, now with Hans T. Sy as Chairman and William C. Whang as President. Until 2011, Gilbert U. Dee was the bank’s chairman.
Notes: (a) In addition to China Bank, Hans T. Sy is chairman of National University and director at SM Prime, SM Investments, and other firms; (b) Albino Sycip is the father of SGV’s Washington SyCip, lawyer Alexander SyCip, and banker David SyCip; (c) Bank premises and the museum are still closed to the public but the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) Culture and Arts Committee headed by Domingo Go was graciously invited to visit. The bank’s centennial committee chairman and former senior vice president Alex Escucha toured the group; and (d) The bank’s centennial celebration included the restoration of its original headquarters, the creation of the museum, and the production of a centennial commemorative book, A Matter of Trust by Raul Rodrigo.
Comments are cordially invited, addressed to [email protected].