History of Standard Chartered Bank

The name Standard Chartered Bank had been formed in 1969 from the merger of the two original banks from which it was founded – The Standard Bank of British South Africa and The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.

The Chartered Bank was founded first, on 29 December 1853 by a Scot, James Wilson from Hawick. He also founded the eminent financial magazine, the Economist.

The bank’s traditional business was in cotton from Bombay, Indigo and tea for Calcutta, rice form Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco for Sumatra, and silk from Yokohama.

Another Scotsman, John Paterson, founded a local newspaper, The Eastern Province Herald in Cape Province in South Africa, became a merchant and helped found The Standard Bank of British South Africa in 1862.

The Chartered Bank was origin in the Far East, the Middle East and India, and the Standard Chartered had a strong links in Africa. The bank was prominent in financing the development for the diamond fields and later gold mines.

Its overdependence on these markets persuaded the Standard Chartered board to diversify and buy the Hodge Group, a financial holding company, in 1974, and to expand in the UK.
History of Standard Chartered Bank