In 1979, the Bank of China was re-established by spin-off from the PBC in the early phase of Chinese economic reform.

The Bank of China opened a number of branches in Batavia, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Haiphong, Hanoi, Rangoon, Bombay, and Calcutta to facilitate the gathering of remittances and the flow of military supplies.

It also opened sub-agencies in Surabaya, Medan, Dabo, Batu Pahat, Baichilu, Mandalay, Lashio, Ipoh, and Seremban.

In 1941-1942, the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia forced the BOC to close all its overseas branches, agencies, sub-branches and sub-agencies, except London, New York, Calcutta, and Bombay.

Nevertheless, in 1942, it managed to set up six new overseas branches, such as in Sydney, (Australia), Liverpool, and Havana, and possibly Karachi.

[18]: 13 Following the end of World War II, the Bank of China in 1946 reopened its branches and agencies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Haiphong, Rangoon, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, and Jakarta.

At the suggestion of the Allied Forces Headquarters, it liquidated the branch in Osaka, Japan and opened a sub-branch in Tokyo.

[15] The Institute performed research that influenced bank decisions and central government policy making.

In 2001-2007, the BOC undertook massive staff layoffs and paycuts in BOC Singapore Branch, a phase of turmoil that culminated in 2007 when branch head Zhu Hua was asked to leave by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for his poor performance.

In 2005, in the runup to its initial public offering, BOC solicited long term investors to take strategic stakes in the company, including a $3.1 billion investment by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC and further investments by Swiss bank UBS AG and Temasek Holdings (who also promised to subscribe for an additional $500 million worth of shares during the IPO).

The Bank was also investigated by the United States in its money laundering probe related to the superdollars affair.

The Canadian arm of the Bank of China now has 10 branches across Canada, including five in the Greater Toronto Area and three in Vancouver.

[31] In 2015, the BOC gained entry to the London Bullion Market Association gold price auction.

[32] That same year, the BOC opened two global commodity centres in Singapore, becoming the first Chinese bank to do so outside China.

[36] In 2017, it received permission to operate a deposit bank in Turkey,[37] and in October 2017, opened its first branch in Pakistan in Karachi.

As of 2017, BOC operated outside of mainland China in 27 countries and areas including Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Russia, Hungary, United States, Panama, Brazil, Japan, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Zambia, South Africa, and a branch office in the Cayman Islands.

[39] In August 2023, Reuters reported BoC launched a countrywide exercise to reduce the salary gaps among its employees and mid- and high-level managers in line of the common prosperity agenda promoted by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

[citation needed] It listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (independently from BOCHK) (SEHK:3988) by floating the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the world by any institution since 2000 on 1 June 2006, raising US$9.7 billion.

Although some financial analysts advised caution due to the worrying amounts of non-performing loans, this hardly deterred investors.

The Bank of China began its business in Canada by opening a representative office in Toronto on 8 September 1992.

On 29 October 2012, the Honorable J. Scheindlin issued a ruling compelling Bank of China to provide discovery.

[51][52][53] In 2012, the families of eight terror victims of the 2008 Mercaz HaRav massacre in Jerusalem filed a $1 billion lawsuit against the Bank of China.

The suit asserted that in 2003 the bank's New York branch wired millions of dollars to Hamas from its leadership in Syria and Iran.