The court confiscated 100,000 yuan, HK$250,000, US$139,000, two Tiffany watches, a massage chair and an apartment in Shanghai's Xuhui district from Zhang, according to the verdict by Beijing No1 Intermediate Court. The decision has not been made public.

'[Zhang] committed some crimes but does not deserve 15 years in prison,' Mr Gao said. 'I think 10 years is a more appropriate sentence.'

Any appeal must be made within 10 days of sentencing.

Zhang will probably serve his time in Qincheng prison on the outskirts of Beijing, a penitentiary for political prisoners that housed the so-called 'Gang of Four' after they were jailed for their roles in the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

The former chairman was fired in March last year, seven months before the bank's US$9.2 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong.

His predecessor, Wang Xuebing - the chairman of Bank of China between 1994 and 2000 and then of Construction Bank until his arrest in 2002 - is serving 12 years in prison on corruption charges.

The decision, coming a week after Industrial and Commercial Bank of China staged the world's biggest IPO, serves as a reminder of how endemic corruption has been in mainland banks.

'Corporate governance is certainly one of the areas we remain concerned about at the Chinese banks,' said Fitch banking analyst Charlene Chu. 'This is a problem that has occurred at all levels.'

Among the main sources of bribes in Zhang's case were US banking software supplier Fidelity Information Services and one of its employees, Zou Jianhua, the Beijing court verdict said.

Fidelity is being sued in a district court in Florida by former business partner Grace & Digital Information Technology for breach of contract.

Grace alleges Fidelity bribed officials at BOC and Construction Bank, including Wang and Zhang, to secure lucrative software contracts. It cut its ties with Fidelity when the Construction Bank contracts were suspended after Wang's arrest.

Grace filed the Florida suit after losing a case against Fidelity in California in which it tried to recover US$58 million of commissions it said were owed by Fidelity for helping negotiate sales of US$176 million worth of software to Construction Bank.

Shanhaiyuan Investment Management and well-known nightclub owner Tan Hui were also named in the verdict as having paid cash bribes to Zhang.

Should Zhang appeal, he will dispute the court's ruling on the scale of the bribery, Mr Gao said.

'[Zhang] did not receive the key to the [Shanghai apartment] and never stayed there, so that should not be included in the bribery amount,' Mr Gao said.

He argued some meetings with Mr Zou and his associates were in a personal, not official, capacity and that dinners paid for by Mr Zou should not be deemed bribes.

Additional reporting by Veronica Ban