Li Ming

Li Ming (李銘; November 24, 1887 – October 22, 1966) was a Chinese banking and investing pioneer. He formed the Chekiang Industrial Bank in 1922 and was General Manager and later Chairman until 1949. In 1950 he founded the Chekiang First Bank Ltd. in Hong Kong, and served as Chairman until his death in 1966. Over the course of his career he held more than thirty directorships in banks, industrial concerns, insurance companies and public utilities, and served in many key governmental positions of financial administration. He was a founder and Chairman of the Shanghai Bankers' Association. Biography Li Ming was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, in 1887, the second son of a silver merchant. Following a traditional education in the Chinese Classics, in 1902 he attended the American Baptist missionary-run Wayland Academy, Hangzhou. He went on in 1905 to study banking and commerce at the Yamaguchi Commercial College (山口高等商業学校 Yamaguchi kōtō shōgyō gakkō), Japan, on a government scholarship. As part of his studies, Li Ming interned at the Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd., which had been authorized in 1884 by the Ministry of Finance to manage Japan's foreign exchange. The bank's important role in foreign trade, especially with China, provided Li Ming with valuable exposure to foreign financial dealings. After graduating in 1910, he returned to China and obtained a job as an auditor in the Chekiang Provincial and Industrial Bank, in Hangzhou. In 1911 he became Manager of the bank's Shanghai office, where he distinguished himself by rapidly expanding the bank's business. However, he saw the disadvantages of the bank's dual role as a semi-governmental enterprise, due to the continual demands placed on it by the provincial authorities. He was able to negotiate with the provincial government and the private shareholders for a reorganization in 1922 whereby the bank was split into two successor banks – the Provincial Bank of Chekiang, owned solely by the provincial government, and the Chekiang Industrial Bank, a private banking firm with its head office in Shanghai. Li Ming concentrated his energies on the Chekiang Industrial Bank, of which he became General Manager. The bank operated only two branches, in Hankou and in Hangzhou, to avoid the risk of additional branches in politically unstable areas becoming liabilities. His management policy further emphasized concentration, liquidity and prudent investment.