Mitsubishi Bank was founded in 1880 by a former samurai, Iwasaki Yatarō, and was a core member of the Mitsubishi Group of companies. It merged with The Bank of Tokyo in 1996 to form The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd., which at that point was the world's largest bank in terms of total assets. In 1998, upon merger of the then second and third largest Swiss banks, Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation, the newly created UBS AG became the second largest in the world at the time, behind only the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. The Bank of Tokyo had historically focused on foreign exchange business since its foundation as the Yokohama Specie Bank in 1880, while Mitsubishi had had a stronger focus on domestic corporate and retail banking. Both banks were relatively healthy in the wake of the Japanese asset price bubble. Until the Tokyo-Mitsubishi merger took place in 1996, Sanwa Bank, which was based in Osaka and was the anchor of the Sanwa Group keiretsu, had been considered the…
Bank of Ceylon (BoC) was founded in 1939, with Sir Ernest de Silva as its first chairman. At the time, Ceylon was a British colony and the then governor Sir Andrew Caldecott ceremoniously opened the bank on 1 August. The English government introduced the banking arm for its government-oriented businesses. Two years later, in 1941, BoC started to expand beyond the city of Colombo. It opened its first branch in Kandy. Subsequently BoC added branches in major cities such as Galle, Jaffna, Kurunegala, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Badulla, and Panadura.
The saga of Bank of Ceylon (BOC) began on 1st of August 1939 under Bank of Ceylon Ordinance No. 53 of 1938, the Governor of Ceylon, Sir Andrew Caldecott, declared open the maiden office of Sri Lanka’s first state-owned commercial bank in Fort, Colombo. BOC is a licensed commercial bank established under the Banking Act No. 30 of 1988. As Bankers to the Nation, BOC reached out to all citizens of the country through its largest network over 627…
HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G has operated in the Sultanate since 1948. It provides a wide range of banking services for both corporate and individual customers. In recent years HSBC Oman has expanded to over 90 branches and in addition has a full-service trading operation, private banking operation, and a custodial service for the Muscat Securities Market. In Oman, the HSBC Group is represented by HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G. In June 2012, HSBC Bank Middle East´s Oman operations merged with Oman International Bank (OIB), an Omani bank with a rich heritage in the Sultanate which was a public listed joint stock company listed on Muscat Securities Market (MSM) and was renamed as HSBC Bank Oman S.A.O.G (HBON). HSBC has been present in Oman since 1948 and for two decades was the only bank operating in the country. In 1970, it assisted in the first issue of the Omani currency. Over the years, the bank has delivered a number of “firsts” for Oman, including the first to launch ATMs, provide international…
The bank was founded by a group of industrialists and financiers during the second empire, on May 4, 1864. The bank's first chairman was the prominent industrialist Eugène Schneider (1805–1875) followed by Edward Blount, a Scotsman. The company started to hire employees and establish offices. Coverage of France went ahead at a steady rate. By 1870, the bank had 15 branches in Paris and 32 in the rest of France. It set up a permanent office in London in 1871. At the beginning, the bank used its own resources almost entirely for both financial and banking operations. In 1871, Société Générale moved into the public French issues market with a national debenture loan launched to cover the war indemnity stipulated in the Treaty of Frankfurt. In 1886, Société Générale was part of the bank consortium (along with the Franco-Egyptian Bank and the Crédit Industriel et Commercial) that financed the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
Today, Société Générale S.A. is a French multinational banking…
The government of Mauritius established State Bank of Mauritius in 1973 under the name State Commercial Bank. In 1994, SBM opened its first overseas branch in Mumbai, India. In 1995, the bank was listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius. Then in 1997 the South African bank Nedcor acquired 20.1% of SBM’s voting equity. That same year SBM opened its second branch in India in Chennai, and the next year one in Hyderabad, India. Banque SBM Madagascar, a fully owned subsidiary of SBM, started banking operations in Madagascar in January 1998. The company operates from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The next year, SBM and Nedcor established SBM Nedcor International (SNI) as a 50/50 joint venture to engage in offshore banking, and SNI started operations in 2000. In order to avoid any conflict of interest with SBI International, Mauritius (formerly State Bank International), another joint venture offshore company between SBM and State Bank of India, SBM disinvested its 49 percent…
Established on 16 July 1968 by the Government of Singapore to take over the industrial financing activities from the Economic Development Board, the bank's main purpose was to provide loans and financial aid to the manufacturing and processing industries and to help establish and upgrade existing industries in Singapore. In 1960, the Singapore government invited a United Nations (UN) industrial survey mission to assess the economical situation in Singapore and to come up with an industrialization program for the city. The proposal included setting up a development bank, together with an economic body to attract foreign investments and provide financing and managing the industrial estates. The bank was incorporated in July 1968 and began operations in September of the same year.
Presently, DBS Bank is a multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Marina Bay, Singapore. The company was known as The Development Bank of Singapore Limited, before the present…
Credit Suisse's founder, Alfred Escher, was called, "the spiritual father of the railway law of 1852," for his work defeating the idea of a state-run railway system in Switzerland in favor of privatization. Escher founded Credit Suisse (originally called the Swiss Credit Institution, i.e., Schweizerische Kreditanstalt) in 1856 primarily to provide domestic funding to railway projects, avoiding French banks that wanted to exert influence over the railway system. Escher aimed to start the company with three million shares and instead sold 218 million shares in three days. The bank was modeled after Crédit Mobilier, a bank funding railway projects in France that was founded two years prior, except Credit Suisse had a more conservative lending policy focused on short-to-medium term loans. In its first year of operation, 25 percent of the bank's revenues was from the Swiss Northeastern Railway, which was being built by Escher's company, Nordostbahn.
Today, Credit Suisse Group is a Swiss…
Established in Sydney in 1817, the Bank of New South Wales (BNSW) was the first bank in Australia. Edward Smith Hall was its first cashier and secretary. During the 19th and early 20th century, the Bank opened branches first throughout Australia and Oceania, at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877), Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910) and Tasmania (1910). In 1982, BNSW merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia and changed their name to Westpac Banking Corporation. WBC was framed with the mission to become a significant Western-Pacific bank from which the Westpac portmanteau is derived. The brand name incorporated the "W" which had been the logo of the Bank of New South Wales (popularly known as "the Wales"). Today, Westpac Banking Corporation, more commonly known as Westpac, is an Australian bank and financial-services provider headquartered in Westpac Place, Sydney. It is one of Australia's…
The bank is rooted in the ideas of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, the founder of the cooperative movement of credit unions, who in 1864 created the first farmers' bank in Germany. Being a countryside mayor he was confronted with the abject poverty of the farmers and their families. He tried to alleviate this need through charitable aid, but realised that self-reliance had more potential in the long run, and thus converted his charitable foundation into a farmers' bank in 1864. In doing so he created the Darlehnskassen-Verein, which collected the savings of countryside dwellers and provided enterprising farmers with loans. The first was formed as a cooperation of 6 local banks and the latter as a cooperation of 22 local banks. These two existed side by side for three-quarters of a century despite their obvious similarities. The reasons for this owed in part to legal disagreements. The most important difference, however, was cultural. The Eindhoven-based Boerenleenbank had a decidedly…
ANZ is one of the leading Australian banks in the Asia-Pacific region. It has been aggressive in its expansion into the emerging markets of China, Vietnam and Indonesia. ANZ is also a leading bank in New Zealand as well as several Pacific Island Nation where it competes in many markets with fellow Australian bank Westpac. ANZ's arm in New Zealand is operated through a subsidiary company, ANZ National Bank, from 2003 to 2012, when it changed to ANZ Bank New Zealand upon merging the ANZ and National Bank brands. In March 2005, it formed a strategic alliance with Vietnam's Sacombank involving an acquisition of 10% of Sacombank’s share capital. As part of the strategic alliance, ANZ will provide technical assistance in the areas of risk management and retail and small business banking. ANZ has followed a similar strategy in China, where it acquired a 20% share in Tianjin City Commercial Bank in July 2006. It also negotiated a similar deal with Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank. In August…