Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China

This article is about the historic British bank, Chartered Bank, which in 1969 merged with historic South African Bank - Standard Bank. For the merged and currently existing British bank, see Standard Chartered Bank. For chartered banks in Canada, see Banking in Canada.

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China
Industry	Banking
Fate	Merged with Standard Bank
Successor	Standard Chartered
Founded	1860
Defunct	1969

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (informally The Chartered Bank) was a bank incorporated in London in 1853 by Scotsman James Wilson, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.^[1]^[2]

Though lacking a truly strong domestic network in Britain, it was influential in the development of British colonial trade throughout the East of Suez.^[3]

In 1969 Chartered Bank merged with Standard Bank, which did business throughout Africa. The merged enterprise was incorporated in London under the name Standard Chartered.

History

Early years : 1853 to 1900

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China - a bank incorporated in London, was founded in 1853 in Karachi (now in Pakistan) by James Wilson; following the grant of a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria.^[4]

In 1858, it opened its first branches in Calcutta, Bombay and Shanghai. The bank's operations were expanded to Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859, followed by Karachi in 1863. Chartered bank was keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of trade between India and China and other British possessions in Asia; and the handsome profits that could be made from financing the movement of goods from Europe to Far East. It competed with the other great British banks of that time - Oriental Bank Corporation, the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank and Mercantile Bank of India, London and China.

The Shanghai branch of Chartered bank began operation in August 1858. Initially, the bank's business dealt specifically with large volume discounting and re-discounting of opium and cotton bills. Although there was a gradual rise in opium cultivation in China, the imports of opium still increased from 50,087 picul in 1863 to 82,61 picul by 1888. Transactions in the opium trade generated substantial profits for Chartered bank.^[5] Later, the Chartered Bank also became one of the principal foreign banknote-issuing institutions in Shanghai.^[6]^[7]

In 1859, the bank opened a branch in Hong Kong and an agency in Singapore. In 1861, the Singapore agency was upgraded to a branch. In 1862, the bank was authorised to issue bank notes in Hong Kong;^[7] a privilege it continues to exercise (as Standard Chartered) to this day. Over the following decades, it printed bank notes in China and Malaya. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869; and completion of Indo-European telegraph line^[8]^[9]^[10] from London to Calcutta, and its extension to China in 1871;^[11] placed most British banks (including Chartered Bank) to expand and develop its business.

Expansion and transition to a merger: 1900 to 1969

The bank's expansion continued to the 1900s, leading it to open branches across Asia. The bank's traditional business was in cotton from Bombay, indigo and tea from Calcutta, rice from Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco from Sumatra, hemp from Manila and silk from Yokohama.

In the early 1900s, the bank opened offices in New York and Hamburg. When it established its New York branch in 1912, Chartered Bank became the first foreign bank to be issued a licence to operate in New York.

In 1923 the Great Kanto earthquake destroyed Chartered Bank's office in Yokohama, Japan, and killed a number of its staff.

In 1927 the bank acquired P&O Bank, which had offices in Colombo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canton (present day, Guangzhou). P&O Bank also owned Allahabad Bank. The operations of P&O Bank were merged with Chartered Bank. But Allahabad Bank continued to be run as a separate entity.

The bank was greatly affected by the Second World War. Their UK office had an established sports ground in East Molesey in Surrey, which included an active rugby club. The site had once been a large country estate and the house known as the ‘Wilderness’. It was demolished when the park was developed into a high-class residential estate in 1876. The new ‘Wilderness’ was a red brick house, built in 1881 in Jacobean style. In 1929 the house, together with the land on the other side of the river Mole, was laid out as a sports ground, firstly for the Distillers Company, and then for the construction group Trollope & Colls. Later the estate became the sports ground of the Standard Chartered Bank. A disastrous fire gutted the house in 1983. The ground was sold for housing development and their sports club closed. ^[12]

In 1957, the bank acquired Eastern Bank, giving Chartered a network of branches in Aden, Bahrain, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE. Chartered also bought the Ionian Bank's Cyprus Branches.

In 1969, Chartered Bank merged with the South African bank Standard Bank, forming Standard Chartered Bank. The same year, the Government of India nationalised Allahabad Bank.

References

↑ Standard Chartered Bank History
↑ World Paper Money Catalog and History - Hongkong Dollar
↑ History of Standard Chartered plc company
↑ Feng, Bangyan; (1861). A Century of Hong Kong Financial Development. Joint Publishing Hong Kong. ISBN 962-04-2129-9.
↑ Zhaojin Ji. 2003. A History of Modern Shanghai Banking. (M.E. Sharpe), pp.44-5.
↑ Horesh, Niv. 2009. Shanghai's Bund and Beyond. (Yale University Press)
1 2 Collection of Historicla banknotes - Hong Kong , Shanghai, China
↑ Page 32 - The Rise of India: Its Transformation from Poverty to Prosperity by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
↑ Indo-European Telegraph line and impact of rapid industrialisation
↑ The Indo-European Telegraph Company by Steven Roberts
↑ The foreign banks in China, Part I - (1850-1900) The Opening of China to the Outside World by John E. Sandrock
↑ http://www.moleseyhistory.co.uk/books/molesey/bom/bom_13.htm

External links

History of Standard Chartered Bank on its website

Standard Chartered

Divisions and
subsidiaries

Current	Standard Chartered Bangladesh Standard Chartered Ghana Standard Chartered Hong Kong Standard Chartered Kenya Standard Chartered Korea Standard Chartered Nepal Standard Chartered Pakistan Standard Chartered Sri Lanka Standard Chartered Tanzania Standard Chartered Thailand Standard Chartered Uganda Standard Chartered Zambia Standard Chartered Zimbabwe

Former	Allahabad Bank¹ Standard Bank² Standard Chartered Bank of Canada³

Predecessors

American Express Bank
Bank of British West Africa
Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China
Colesberg Bank
Grindlays Bank
Hsinchu International Bank
P&O Bank
Eastern Bank
Standard Bank
Union Bank

Places

People

Sponsorships

Other

Seeing is Believing

¹Nationalized ²Spun off ³Sold

Category
Commons

Banking in India

Reserve bank	Reserve Bank of India

Public sector banks	Allahabad Bank Andhra Bank Bank of Baroda Bank of India Bank of Maharashtra Bharatiya Mahila Bank Canara Bank Central Bank of India Corporation Bank Dena Bank IDBI Bank Indian Bank Indian Overseas Bank Oriental Bank of Commerce Post Bank of India Punjab & Sind Bank Punjab National Bank State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur State Bank of Hyderabad State Bank of India State Bank of Mysore State Bank of Patiala State Bank of Travancore Syndicate Bank UCO Bank Union Bank of India United Bank of India Vijaya Bank

Private sector banks	Axis Bank Bandhan Bank Catholic Syrian Bank City Union Bank DCB Bank Dhanlaxmi Bank Federal Bank HDFC Bank ICICI Bank IDFC Bank IndusInd Bank Jammu & Kashmir Bank Karnataka Bank Karur Vysya Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank Lakshmi Vilas Bank Nainital Bank RBL Bank (Ratnakar Bank) South Indian Bank Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Limited Yes Bank

Cooperative banks	Buldhana Urban Cosmos Bank Repco Bank Saraswat Bank Shamrao Vithal Co-op. Bank TNSC Bank Rajkot Nagrik Sahakari Bank

Foreign banks	ABN AMRO Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank Antwerp Diamond Bank Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Bank Internasional Indonesia Bank of America Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait Bank of Ceylon The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Barclays Citibank India Credit Suisse Deutsche Bank HSBC The Royal Bank of Scotland Scotiabank Standard Chartered

Regional Rural Banks	Andhra Pragathi Grameena Bank Kerala Gramin Bank Bangiya Gramin Vikash Bank Gramin Bank of Aryavart North Malabar Gramin Bank Pallavan Grama Bank Pandyan Grama Bank Paschim Banga Gramin Bank Sarva UP Gramin Bank South Malabar Gramin Bank Uttar Bihar Gramin Bank Vananchal Gramin Bank List of regional rural banks in Uttar Pradesh

Interbank networks	BANCS Cashnet CashTree Cirrus IMPS MITR NFS PLUS RuPay

Defunct banks	Alliance Bank of Simla Arbuthnot & Co Bank of Bombay Bank of Calcutta Bank of Chettinad Bank of Madras Bank of Madura Bank of Rajasthan Bengal Central Bank Bharat Overseas Bank Centurion Bank of Punjab Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China Commercial Bank of India Dass Bank Exchange Bank of India & Africa Global Trust Bank Grindlays Bank Imperial Bank of India ING Vysya Bank Lord Krishna Bank Madhavpura Mercantile Cooperative Bank Mercantile Bank of India, London and China Nath Bank Nedungadi Bank New Bank of India Oriental Bank Corporation Oudh Commercial Bank Palai Central Bank Pandyan Bank State Bank of Indore State Bank of Saurashtra United Industrial Bank

Related topics	Banking Codes and Standards Board of India ATM usage fees in India De-Materialisation (DEMAT) Foreign Exchange (FOREX) Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) List of banks in India National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) National Payments Corporation of India Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) Structured Financial Messaging System (SFMS) Prepaid Payment Instruments in India

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