Banking in the Far East varies greatly from country to country, some nations and states having reached a substantially high degree of development following Western models, while others are far behind in the degree of their growth. Probably the most complete and well-developed banking system in the Far East is that of Japan. There a banking system patterned upon European models has been established with the Bank of Japan, a note-issuing institution, acting practically as a bankers' bank and as a state bank somewhat similar to the plan that prevails in England. Japan's coinage system before the war was monometallic, and the Bank of Japan's notes were and are convertible into gold. Public funds are kept in the Bank of Japan, and deposits and withdrawals made after ordinary banking methods. The principal change necessitated by the war was the issue of currency notes by the Japanese Treasury, but the convertibility of the notes of the Bank of Japan has been steadily maintained. Several strong and well-organized commercial banks have been created by special charter in Japan, these including the Yokohama Specie Bank, the Bank of Taiwan, the Industrial. Bank of Japan, and various others, while ordinary banking institutions may be incorporated under general legislation which regulates their operation. Foreign banks have always maintained an important position in Japan through the establishment of branches which finance export and import trade, but their relative control over the internal business of the country has of late years declined.

In China, a highly complex and very unstable banking and currency system exists, domestic banks being established in the various provinces, with practically little or no control over them on the part of the government. The Bank of China, which was established a few years ago and was authorized to issue notes, has only a limited lending power and has never reached any very significant degree of development. Many foreign banks have established branches at so-called treaty ports on the coast of China, and their operations are directed largely to financing importation and exportation. These banks have been established from time to time as branches of home institutions operated in various countries and their business has been subject to very little oversight or control. Few of them have issued regular statements, and practically all have been allowed in certain circumstances to circulate notes which have attained a more or less broad field of use, according to the scope of the trade conducted by the merchants belonging to the country under whose laws a given bank was incorporated.

In British India, while there have been many native banks, the principal functions of foreign-trade financing and of ordinary banking business in the commercial sense have been conducted by British institutions either with their home offices in London or in some of the various Indian cities. This has prevented the development on a large or well-organized scale of a definite Indian banking system, although the ordinary needs of the population in general have been met by the establishment of native institutions with branches throughout the country.

In Australia, for many years the banking facilities were provided in much the same way as in Canada, through local incorporation of note-issuing banks or through the establishment of branches by British institutions with head offices in London. As a result of the organization of banks by these methods some twenty-five main institutions were established in Australia and several of them developed large networks of branches extending throughout the several Australian states. In 1912 the Commonwealth Bank was brought into existence as a government-owned institution whose function was chiefly to handle the funds of the central government. This Commonwealth Bank has tended at times to develop into more or less of a bankers' bank, somewhat after the plan of the Bank of England, but has never yet succeeded in establishing itself fully in that capacity, so that there has always been more or less competition between it and the other local institutions. While the Commonwealth Bank issues notes which have, many of the attributes of the government currency, the other Australian banks are likewise authorized to issue notes under the laws of the several states, and do so, the result being to establish a very large circulation of bank notes. Such bank notes, however, are maintained convertible into Commonwealth notes at the various offices of the issuing banks.