The First hundred years of the Standard Bank – JA Henry

Condition : Good.
First Edition, Oxford University Press, 1963, Vintage Hardback with removable protective plastic wrap – Africana – 371pp.

The bank’s origins can be traced back to 1862, when a group of businessmen led by the prominent right-wing South African politician John Paterson founded a bank in London, initially under the name Standard Bank of British South Africa. The bank began operations in 1863 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and shortly after opening merged with several other banks, including the Commercial Bank of Port Elizabeth, the Colesberg Bank, the British Kaffrarian Bank and the Fauresmith Bank.

It was prominent in the financing and development of the diamond fields of Kimberley in 1867. The word “British” was dropped from the title in 1883. When gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand, the bank expanded northwards and on 11 October 1886 the bank commenced business in a tent at Ferreira’s Camp (later to be called Johannesburg), thus becoming the first bank to open a branch on the Witwatersrand goldfields. On 1 November 1901, a second branch was opened in Eloff Street in Johannesburg.
Until 1962, the British bank was formally known as the Standard Bank of South Africa, although by then its operations had spread across Africa. When the South African operations were formed into a subsidiary in 1962, the parent changed its name to Standard Bank Limited, and the South African subsidiary took its parent’s former name.

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