History

The Standard Chartered Group was formed in 1969 through a merger of two banks: The Standard Bank of British South Africa founded in 1863 and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, founded in 1853.

Both companies were keen to capitalise on the huge expansion of trade and to earn the handsome profits to be made from financing the movement of goods from Europe to the East and to Africa.

The Chartered Bank

• Founded by James Wilson following the grant of a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1853.
• Chartered opened its first branches in Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta and Shanghai in 1858, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859.
• Traditional business was in cotton from Mumbai (Bombay), indigo and tea from Calcutta, rice in Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco from Sumatra, hemp in Manila and silk from Yokohama.
• Played a major role in the development of trade with the East which followed the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the extension of the telegraph to China in 1871.
• In 1957 Chartered Bank bought the Eastern Bank together with the Ionian Bank's Cyprus Branches. This established a presence in the Gulf.

The Standard Bank

• Founded in the Cape Province of South Africa in 1862 by John Paterson. Commenced business in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in January 1863.
• 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.
• Expanded in Southern, Central and Eastern Africa and by 1953 had 600 offices.
• In 1965, it merged with the Bank of West Africa expanding its operations into Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

In 1969, the decision was made by Chartered and by Standard to undergo a friendly merger. All was going well until 1986, when a hostile takeover bid was made for the Group by Lloyds Bank of the United Kingdom. When the bid was defeated, Standard Chartered entered a period of change. Provisions had to be made against third world debt exposure and loans to corporations and entrepreneurs who could not meet their commitments. Standard Chartered began a series of divestments notably in the United States and South Africa, and also entered into a number of asset sales.

From the early 1990s, Standard Chartered has focused on developing its strong franchises in Asia, the Middle East and Africa using its operations in the United Kingdom and North America to provide customers with a bridge between these markets. Secondly, it would focus on consumer, corporate and institutional banking and on the provision of treasury services - areas in which the Group had particular strength and expertise.

In the new millennium we acquired Grindlays Bank from the ANZ Group and the Chase Consumer Banking operations in Hong Kong in 2000.

Since 2005, we have achieve several milestones with a number of strategic alliances and acquisitions that will extend our customer or geographic reach and broaden our product range.

Please click here for the list of recent strategic alliances and acquisitions.