 Grindlay & Co, 54 & 55 Parliament Street, Westminster on 22 August 1899 | |
| Industry | Banking,insurance,financial services |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1828; 197 years ago (1828) inLondon,United Kingdom |
| Founder | Robert Melville Grindlay |
| Fate | Acquired byANZ Bank in 1984 |
| Headquarters | London ,United Kingdom |
Number of locations | 183 (1863-1963)[1] |
Area served |
|
Key people | Notable Chairmen: |
| Total assets | £277.3 million (1963)[1] ~£7.4 billion (2023) |
Number of employees | c.10,000 (1963)[1] |
The historic overseas bank was established in London in 1828 asLeslie & Grindlay, agents and bankers to theBritish Army and business community inIndia. Banking operations expanded to include theIndian subcontinent, theMiddle East and elements ofAfrica andSoutheast Asia. It was styledGrindlay, Christian & Matthews in 1839,Grindlay & Co from 1843,Grindlay & Co Ltd from 1924 andGrindlays Bank Ltd in 1947 until its merger with theNational Bank of India.[1][2]
TheNational Bank of India was formed in 1863 and became one of the larger London overseas banks operating not only in the Indian sub-continent but in communities around the Indian Ocean. In 1948 it merged with the smallerGrindlays Bank Ltd, renaming itselfNational and Grindlays Bank Ltd some ten years later.[1] Following further acquisitions, its name was shortened toGrindlays Bank in 1974, and then renamedANZ Grindlays Bank when it was taken over byAustralia and New Zealand Banking Group in 1984.[3]Standard Chartered Bank acquired ANZ Grindlays in 2000, after which the Grindlays name fell out of use.
CaptainRobert Melville Grindlay (1786 - 1877)[4] established the firm, Leslie & Grindlay, inLondon in 1828, to arrange secure passage to and from India for customers and their baggage. Initially based in Birchin Lane nearLombard Street in London, the company acted as agents to organise travel arrangements and provide advisory services for their clientele, particularlyEast India Company employees and British officials.[5][6] Expansion of the business saw the opening of several other offices in theCity of London (Cornhill andBishopsgate) andWestminster (Whitehall andSt James's Square).[1]
In time, under the guidance of Capt. R M Grindlay, the firm addedprivate banking,insurance, and other financial activities to its menu of services, and operations expanded to includeEurope, theMiddle East,South andSoutheast Asia, and elements ofAfrica. The acquisition of additional partners during this period, caused the firm to change its name to Grindlay, Christian & Matthews in 1839 and then Grindlay & Co. in 1843.[7] When Grindlay eventually retired in 1842, the firm had become "the most distinguished bankers and agents to the civil and military officials of the business community and the British Army in India".[8]
The firm remained based solely in London until 1854 when offices were opened atCalcutta in 1864 and thenBombay in 1865.[9] These offices were largely autonomous, administered from London, until the local partners interests were bought out in 1908. Additional branches were opened inSimla (1912),Delhi (1923),Lahore (1924) andPeshawar (1926).[1]
Grindlays was regarded as "pre-eminently bankers to the Indian Army", concentrating in areas of important civil or military headquarters, and undertook littlecommercial banking.[1] The failure of army bankers, MacGrigors in 1922 and then theAlliance Bank of Simla in 1923,[10] encouraged the Grindlays partners to seek the security of a larger organisation. In 1924, the Bank was acquired by theNational Provincial Bank, converted into a company and allowed to operate independently as Grindlay & Co Ltd.[1] When National Provincial decided to exit overseas banking in 1948, it sold Grindlays to the National Bank of India, in which it took a small share position.
The Calcutta City Banking Corporation was formed in 1863 as an Indian registered bank, changing its name to the National Bank of India (NBI) a few months later. Offices inLondon andBombay followed in 1864 and 1865. Crucial to the Bank's future, its head office was transferred to London in 1866 and the company was registered under the UK Companies Act, giving it much greater international potential, but it was a move that was fiercely contested for many years.[1]
NBI remained with these three offices until 1870 when it sought to exploit opportunities inChina with a branch inHong Kong and, later, inShanghai. Substantial losses threatened the Bank and the Chinese operations were eventually closed. Without neglecting its domestic market, NBI began to expand around the fringes of theIndian Ocean, particularlyAden andEast Africa; by 1900 NBI had 19 branches[1] and £10m of assets.[3]
Steady expansion continued through the early 1900s and by the outbreak ofWorld War I NBI was the seventh largest of the London-registered overseas banks. Growth continued during the War and by 1918 the Bank's assets were £33m with record profits of over £400,000.[3] Around that time, detailed discussions took place withLloyds Bank and agreement was reached in principle for Lloyds to acquire NBI but, according to the Bank's official history, the proposal was vetoed by "the authorities".[1]
The inter-war years saw NBI stagnate; only two new branches were opened[1] and there was no growth in the Bank's assets.[3] More substantial change was to come after theSecond World War. In August 1947India was granted independence with all the turmoil that entailed in the Bank's main market. Undaunted, the following year NBI purchased Grindlays Bank fromNational Provincial Bank, then Grindlays Bank Ltd; Grindlays then had deposits of around £20m compared with over £70m for NBI.[1]
NBI and Grindlays were not merged operationally until 1958 under the name National Overseas and Grindlays Bank, renamed National and Grindlays Bank (NGB) in 1959. In 1961, NGB exchanged a 25 per cent share in NGB forLloyds Bank’s Eastern Division, an operation which included the celebratedCox’s Bank, "par excellence bankers to the British Army".[1] In 1968 National Provincial Bank sold its shareholding to Lloyds Bank and in 1969,Citibank took a 40 per cent stake in NGB.
Also in 1969, theOttoman Bank sold its branches in London, Cyprus, Sudan, Jordan, Qatar, East Africa, the Emirates, and Rhodesia to the National and Grindlays Bank, which dropped the National prefix in 1975. Grindlays Bank later bought theOttoman Bank's separate operations in France and Geneva, Banque Ottomane, and renamed them Grindlays Bank - France.[11]
In 1984Citibank and Lloyds sold Grindlays to theAustralia and New Zealand Banking Group. In 1989, five years after it acquired Grindlays, ANZ changed Grindlays' name to ANZ Grindlays Bank and transferred its domicile (requiring an Act of Parliament)[12] to Australia in 1996. In 1993, ANZ Grindlays sold its African operations toStandard Bank Investment Corporation (Stanbic), which was the holding company forStandard Bank of South Africa's operations outsideSouth Africa.Standard Chartered Bank had sold its shares inStandard Bank of South Africa to the bank's existing shareholders in 1987 to escape anti-apartheid sanctions againstSouth Africa.
In 2000, ANZ sold its Grindlays subsidiary toStandard Chartered for US$1.34 (A$2.2) billion in cash,[13] which merged it with its existing banking operations.
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