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…
UBS, through Swiss Bank Corporation, traces its history to 1854 when six private banking firms in Basel, Switzerlandpooled their resources to form the Bankverein, a consortium that acted as an underwriting syndicate for its member banks. In 1871, the Bankverein coordinated with the German Frankfurter Bankverein to form the Basler Bankverein, a joint-stock company replacing the original Bankverein consortium. After the new bank started with an initial commitment of CHF 30 million and CHF 6 million of share capital, it soon experienced growing pains when heavy losses in Germany caused it to suspend its dividend until 1879. Following the years 1885 and 1886, when the bank merged with the Zürcher Bankverein and acquired the Basler Depositenbank and the Schweizerische Unionbank, it changed its name to Schweizerischer Bankverein. The English name of the bank was originally Swiss Bankverein, but was changed to Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) in 1917. The Union Bank of Switzerland emerged in 1912…
It was established in 1966 under the name China Securities and Investment Corporation. In 1971, its name was changed to Chinatrust Investment Company Limited. In 1992, it was transformed into Chinatrust Commercial Bank. Up until 2009, the chairman of the company was Luo Lian-fu. He was succeeded in July 2009 by Michael (Mike) Bernard DeNoma, the first foreigner to take up the role. The bank has subsidiaries in the Philippines, the United States, Canada, and Indonesia, foreign branch offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Japan and Vietnam, and foreign representative offices in London, Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing, Manila, and Los Angeles. CTBC Bank was awarded by international professional agencies as Best Bank in Taiwan in Asiamoney and The Asset magazines.
In the area of corporate banking, CTBC Bank was recognized by Global Finance and Asiamoney as the Best Foreign Exchange Bank in Taiwan, while Global Finance, The Asset, The Asian Banker, The Corporate Treasurer, and Global Trade…
The oldest local bank in the United Arab Emirates, Mashreq Bank has provided banking and financial services to millions of customers and businesses since 1967. It was established in Dubai as the Bank of Oman, prior to formation of the UAE, under a decree of the Ruler of Dubai – Shaikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum. In 1993, the bank changed its name to Mashreq Bank and is now one of the UAE’s leading financial institutions. It has a strong retail and corporate banking presence throughout the Persian Gulf, with branches in Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. The Mashreq branch network extends across the UAE, with 50 percent of households banking with the company. It also has customer service centers in key retail locations and one of the largest ATM networks in the country. In addition the bank has overseas offices in 11 countries across Europe, North America, Asia and Africa. The first branch of the Bank of Oman – as it was known back then – opened in Deira in 1967, which was swiftly…
"The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank" was founded by Scotsman Sir Thomas Sutherland in the then British colony of Hong Kong on 3 March 1865, and in Shanghai a month later, benefiting from the start of trading into China, including opium trading. It was formally incorporated as "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation" by an Ordinance of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on 14 August 1866. In 1980, HSBC acquired a 51% shareholding in US-based Marine Midland Bank, which it extended to full ownership in 1987. On 6 October 1989, it was renamed by the Legislative Council, by an amendment to its governing ordinance originally made in 1929, "The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited", and became registered as a regulated bank with the then Banking Commissioner of the Government of Hong Kong. "HSBC Holdings plc", originally incorporated in England and Wales, in the United Kingdom, as "Vernat Trading Company Limited" on 1 January 1959 and then renamed "Vernat Eastern Agencies…
Barclays traces its origins back to 1690 when John Freame, a Quaker, and Thomas Gould started trading as goldsmith bankers in Lombard Street, London. The name "Barclays" became associated with the business in 1736, when James Barclay, the son-in-law of John Freame, one of the founders, became a partner in the business. In 1728 the bank moved to 54 Lombard Street, identified by the 'Sign of the Black Spread Eagle', which in subsequent years would become a core part of the bank's visual identity. Much of the wealth of the Barclay family was founded on the slave trade: David and Alexander Barclay were engaged in the slave trade in 1756; David Barclay owned a great plantation in Jamaica, later freeing his slaves and coming to appreciate their equivalence to whites. In 1776 the firm was styled "Barclay, Bevan and Bening" and so remained until 1785, when another partner, John Tritton, who had married a Barclay, was admitted, and the business then became "Barclay, Bevan, Bening and Tritton"…
The Chartered Bank began when Queen Victoria granted a Royal Charter to Scotsman James Wilson in 1853. Chartered opened its first branches in Mumbai, Kolkata and Shanghai in 1858, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859. The Bank started issuing banknotes of the Hong Kong dollar in 1862. The Standard Bank was a British bank founded in the Cape Province of South Africa in 1862 by Scot, John Paterson. Having established a considerable number of branches, Standard was prominent in financing the development of the diamond fields of Kimberley from 1867 and later extended its network further north to the new town of Johannesburg when gold was discovered there in 1885. Half the output of the second largest gold field in the world passed through The Standard Bank on its way to London. Standard expanded widely in Africa over the years, but from 1883 to 1962 was formally known as the Standard Bank of South Africa. In 1962 the bank changed its name to Standard Bank Limited, and the South…