THE Bank of China is gearing up to establish a headquarters in Shanghai, the lender said yesterday.

The Pudong New Area or Huangpu District may be the site of the Shanghai headquarters of the country's biggest foreign exchange bank, sources said.

"We hope to make our contribution to Shanghai's rise as a global financial center by setting up a new Shanghai headquarters," Pan Yuehan, president of the BOC's Shanghai branch, said yesterday. But he declined to give a timetable.

Fund management companies, financial consultants and legal companies are based in the Bund in Huangpu District in Puxi while Lujiazui, on the other side of the Huangpu River in Pudong, is the financial district where banks, insurers and securities companies congregate.

Tu Guangshao, vice mayor of Shanghai, said in June that the city welcomes the big four state-owned banks to establish their Shanghai headquarters in an effort to help the city's ambition of becoming a global financial center by 2020 come true.