The Banque Belge pour l'Étranger (BBE, "Belgian Bank for Lands Abroad") was a Belgian bank that operated mainly in Asia. It was originally established in 1902 in Brussels as the Banque Sino-Belge ("Chinese-Belgian Bank"), by the Société Générale de Belgique at the request of King Leopold II of Belgium. Its Hong Kong operation, initiated in 1935, was later renamed the Belgian Bank in 1980, Générale de Banque belge pour l’Étranger in 1985, General Belgian Bank in 1992, and Fortis Bank Asia () in 2000, before being sold in 2005 to ICBC (Asia), the Hong Kong subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. History The Banque Sino-Belge was created in 1902, as Belgium, like other foreign powers with presence in China, was entitled to payments from the Qing Dynasty empire under the Boxer Protocol. Alongside the Société Générale de Belgique, its original investors included the (which would merge into the Banque Sino-Belge in 1905), the Belgian , and the Antwerp-based . Its first chairman was Victor Stoclet, the father of Adolphe Stoclet, succeeded in 1905 by and in 1913 by Jean Jadot who kept the position until his death in 1932. The bank immediately opened a branch in Shanghai, followed by Tianjin in 1906, London in 1909, Beijing in 1911, Cairo in 1912, and Alexandria in 1914. In 1913, the bank's London subsidiary substantially developed its footprint by merging with the Anglo-Foreign Banking Company Ltd (est. 1872). The subsequently changed its name to and marketed itself as a subsidiary of the , which the latter had not allowed until then. During World War I while Belgium was under German occupation, the bank was managed from its London office. It also opened a branch in the Netherlands, which had remained neutral, in Rotterdam in 1915. It became the principal bank of the Commission for Relief in Belgium. After the war's end, its network expanded considerably to Cologne (1919), New York, Paris and Bucharest (1920), Brăila, Hankou and Manchester (1922), and Constantinople (1924). It also invested in several companies and banks across Europe including the in Spain, Wiener Bankverein in Austria, the latter's prewar affiliates in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Yugoslavia, and the in Bulgaria. Much of that expansion was reversed from 1929 and 1935, as the economic context became less favorable. The branches in Romania and Turkey were sold, and the others were transformed into subsidiaries. In 1929, the Egyptian branches became