Banque Industrielle de Chine


The Banque Industrielle de Chine, or Industrial Bank of China, was chartered in 1913 and was closed in 1922. The bank's Chinese office was in Shanghai and its European office in Paris. Its chief director was A.J. Pernotte.
In the beginning of the 1920s riots in China stopped payments of the Chinese borrowers. French investors complained, and André Berthelot, one of the administrator of the bank, asked the French minister of foreign affairs, Aristide Briand, to find a solution since the bank was a joint project of the French the Chinese governments and had been financed by several French companies.
The newly-elected Paul Doumer had been helped by the extreme right in his political campaign. Doumer had personnel interests in the Banque d'Indochine, the main competitor of Banque Industrielle de Chine. Berthelot, one of the administrator of the bank, was the son of an atheist chemist and a former minister who had supported Dreyfus.
Doumer exploited the situation with extreme-right newspapers to explain that Berthelot was the brother of the General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Philippe Berthelot, and asked for the removal of both Berthelot and, more importantly, Briand.
However, an investigation proved that both had acted fairly, and Berthelot gained the full support of everyone else and was supported by the majority of the Senate.
Paradoxically, Briand was helped by the affair. The bank did not go bankrupt but was closed, and its funds were injected in other banks.