Its headquarters was in the Nihonbashi district of Tokyo, adjacent to the Bank of Japan.
BOT became a close partner of the Ministry of Finance and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation in directing Japan's foreign trade policy during the postwar era.
BOT had major operations in New York and London, and developed an early system to settle payments between Japanese yen and Chinese yuan during a time when direct foreign exchange was not possible.
[1] Due to the peculiarly international nature of its business, BOT was the only Japanese bank that employed more foreigners than Japanese, and it had large overseas operations and a large number of non-Japanese customers.
Like the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, Nippon Credit Bank and Norinchukin Bank, BOT was permitted to issue special bonds to obtain yen funding; BTM continued this program for several years after the Tokyo-Mitsubishi merger.