| Industry | Banking |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1853; 173 years ago (1853) |
| Founder | James Wilson with aroyal charter |
| Defunct | 1969 (1969) |
| Fate | Merged withStandard Bank |
| Successor | Standard Chartered |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom  |
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China (informallyThe Chartered Bank) was abank incorporated inLondon in 1853 by ScotsmanJames Wilson, under aRoyal Charter fromQueen Victoria.[1][2]
Though lacking a truly strong domestic network in Britain, it was influential in the development of British colonial trade throughout theEast 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 nameStandard Chartered.
The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China—a bank incorporated inLondon, was founded in 1853 in London[4] byJames Wilson; following the grant of aRoyal Charter fromQueen Victoria.[5]
In 1858, it opened its first branches inCalcutta,Bombay andShanghai. The bank's operations were expanded toHong Kong andSingapore in 1859, followed byKarachi in 1863. Chartered Bank was keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of trade betweenIndia andChina and otherBritish possessions in Asia; and the handsome profits that could be made from financing the movement of goods fromEurope toFar East. It competed with the other great British banks of that time—Oriental Bank Corporation,the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank andMercantile 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 ofopium and cotton bills. Although there was a gradual rise in opium cultivation inChina, the imports of opium still increased from 50,087picul in 1863 to 82,61 picul by 1888. Transactions in the opium trade generated substantial profits for Chartered Bank.[6] Later, the Chartered Bank also became one of the principalforeign banknote-issuing institutions in Shanghai.[7][8]
In 1859, the bank opened a branch inHong Kong and an agency inSingapore. In 1861, the Singapore agency was upgraded to a branch. In 1862, the bank was authorised to issuebank notes in Hong Kong;[8] a privilege it continues to exercise (asStandard Chartered) to this day. Over the following decades, it printed bank notes in China andMalaya. With the opening of theSuez Canal in 1869; and completion ofIndo-European telegraph line[9][10][11] from London toCalcutta, and its extension to China in 1871;[12] placed most British banks (including Chartered Bank) to expand and develop its business.
The bank's expansion continued to the 1900s, leading it to open branches across Asia. The bank's traditional business was in cotton fromBombay, indigo and tea fromCalcutta, rice fromBurma, sugar fromJava, tobacco fromSumatra, hemp fromManila and silk fromYokohama.
In the early 1900s, the bank opened offices inNew York andHamburg. 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 theGreat Kanto earthquake destroyed Chartered Bank's office inYokohama,Japan, and killed a number of its staff.
In 1927 the bank acquiredP&O Bank, which had offices in Colombo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, andGuangzhou (Canton). P&O Bank also ownedAllahabad 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 theSecond World War.
Their UK office had an established sports ground in EastMolesey 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 theDistillers Company, and then for the construction groupTrollope & 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.[13]
In 1957, the bank acquiredEastern Bank, giving Chartered a network of branches inAden,Bahrain,Lebanon,Qatar and theUAE. Chartered also bought theIonian Bank's Cyprus Branches.
In 1964, the government of Indonesia nationalised Chartered Bank's branch as a part ofKonfrontasi. The branch was later merged into Bank Umum Negara, a state-owned bank. Bank Umum Negara then evolved into present-dayBank Mandiri.[14]
In 1969, Chartered Bank merged with the South African bankStandard Bank, formingStandard Chartered. The same year, theGovernment of India nationalised Allahabad Bank.
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