The Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), known from 1924 to 2007 as the Central Bank of China and still referred to under the acronym CBC, is the central bank of the Republic of China. Originally founded in 1924 in Guangzhou, the CBC was expelled from Mainland China by the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949 and relocated to Taiwan. It took over banknote issuance on the island from the Bank of Taiwan in 1961. Its legal and common name in Chinese is literally translated as the "Central Bank". The central bank is administered under the Executive Yuan of the ROC government.

History

Mainland China (1924-1949)

The CBC was originally proposed in 1923 by Sun Yat-sen's Army and Navy Marshal stronghold of the Republic of China and was established in Guangzhou a year later, serving the Nationalist government from 1925. Following the success of the Northern Expedition, the CBC relocated to Shanghai and its head T. V. Soong negotiated a division of labor with the Bank of China in 1928 that refocused the latter on foreign-exchange operations. It was subsequently one of China's "Big Four" national banks, along with the Bank of China, Bank of Communications, and Farmers Bank of China. With the turmoil of the 1930s, the CBC lost jurisdiction over Northeast China to the Central Bank of Manchou in Changchun, then over parts of North China to the Mengjiang Bank in Zhangjiakou, over the territory of the Provisional Government of the ROC to the United Reserve Bank of China in Beijing, and eventually over the full territory run by the Wang Jingwei regime to the Central Reserve Bank of China in Nanjing. In 1937-1938 it relocated to Wuhan, then Chongqing together with the Nationalist government. In 1945, the CBC recovered its Shanghai head office and its nationwide role, but soon had to face the circumstances of the Chinese Civil War and moved together with the government back to Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Chengdu before completing the journey to Taiwan in late 1949. Its archives were lost in the wreckage of the Taiping, which severely undermined the resumption of its operations in Taiwan.

Taiwan (since 1949)

While the CBC was the island’s central bank from 1949, the Bank of Taiwan, a commercial bank founded in 1897 during Japanese colonial rule, kept issuing banknotes until the CBC assumed that role in 1961. On 8 November 1979, the newly revised Central Bank of China Act was promulgated. The Bank of Taiwan issued the New Taiwan dollar until 2000 when the Central Bank of China finally took over the task. In 2007 the English name of the Central Bank of China was renamed the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) along with a host of other renamings under the Chen Shui-bian administration of state-owned corporations with "China" in their name, such as the Chunghwa Post.

Organizational structure

List of governors

Access

The headquarters building is accessible within walking distance northwest from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall MRT station of the Taipei Metro.