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The Old Oversea Chinese Bank Building
The Oversea Chinese Bank in Hugh Low Street (above left) was the most popular bank with immigrant Chinese in Ipoh in the early days. This was the second building to house the bank which commenced trading in Ipoh from three shophouses adjacent to the Ipoh Padang. Today (2019) the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited is strategically located in the heart of Old Town in the old Straits Trading Company building (above right), built in 1907. It is an imposing building featuring Italian style Renaissance architecture.
The Singapore-based bank was originally founded in 1919 and then due to the Great Depression was forced to merge with two other banks, the Chinese Commercial Bank (1912) and the Ho Hong Bank (1917) in 1932. The new bank carried almost the same name - The Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation, OCBC. All three banks had been founded by Hokkien-speaking Chinese and the new bank became the ‘de facto’ bank of choice for this community. However it is recorded that many of Ipoh’s Hakka population also preferred to bank here.
The bank's name is often mistakenly thought to be incorrectly spelled, but is in fact a predominantly British usage of the word more commonly spelled as "overseas".
The old bank building in Hugh Low Street was undergoing restoration (in 2011) by our donor who pointed out to us that mounted on the facade windows are medallion carrying letters that read "Bank of Malaya".
To see a procession passing the Oversea Chinese Bank (OCBC) in Hugh Low Street, click here.