Grindlays Bank

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Grindlays Bank
Headquarters
London
,
United Kingdom
Number of locations
183 (1863-1963)

The historic overseas bank was established in London in 1828 as Leslie & Grindlay, agents and bankers to the British army and business community in India. Banking operations expanded to include the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and elements of Africa and Southeast Asia. It was styled Grindlay, Christian & Matthews in 1839, Grindlay & Co from 1843, Grindlay & Co Ltd from 1924 and Grindlays Bank Ltd in 1947 until its merger with the National Bank of India.[1]

The National 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 purchased the smaller Grindlays Bank Ltd, renaming itself National and Grindlays Bank Ltd some ten years later.

Standard Chartered Bank
acquired ANZ Grindlays in 2000, after which the Grindlays name fell out of use.

History

Grindlays

Bombay in 1865. These offices were largely autonomous, administered from London, until the local partners interests were bought out in 1908. Additional branches were opened in Simla (1912), Delhi (1923), Lahore (1924) and Peshawar (1926).[2]

Grindlays was regarded as "pre-eminently bankers to the Indian Army" and it did little commercial banking. The failure of army bankers, Macgrigors, in 1922 and then the Alliance Bank of Simla in 1923, encouraged the Grindlays partners to seek the security of a larger organisation. In 1924, the Bank was acquired by the National Provincial Bank, converted into a company and allowed to operate independently.[2] 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.

National Bank of India

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 in

Bombay 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.[2]

NBI remained with these three offices until 1870 when it sought to exploit opportunities in China with a branch in Hong Kong and, later, in Shanghai. 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 the Indian Ocean, particularly Aden and East Africa; by 1900 NBI had 19 branches[2] and £10m of assets.[3]

Steady expansion continued through the early 1900s and by the outbreak of

Lloyds 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".[2]

The inter-war years saw NBI stagnate; only two new branches were opened

Second World War. In August 1947 India was granted independence with all the turmoil that entailed in the Bank's main market. Undaunted, the following year NBI purchased Grindlays Bank from National Provincial Bank; Grindlays then had deposits of around £20m compared with over £70m for NBI.[2]

National and Grindlays

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 for

Lloyds Bank’s Eastern Division, an operation which included the celebrated Cox’s Bank, "par excellence bankers to the British Army".[2] 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, the Ottoman 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 the Ottoman Bank's separate operations in France and Geneva, Banque Ottomane, and renamed them Grindlays Bank - France.[6]

Minerva House, overlooking the Thames. Headquarters from 1983

In 1984

Standard Bank of South Africa to the bank's existing shareholders in 1987 to escape anti-apartheid sanctions against South Africa
.

In 2000, ANZ sold its Grindlays subsidiary to Standard Chartered for US$1.3 (A$2.2) billion in cash,[8] which merged it with its existing banking operations.

See also

Gallery

  • Frontage of the historic Grindlays Bank in 2009
    Frontage of the historic Grindlays Bank in 2009
  • Facade of Grindlay & Co headquarters, 54 and 55 Parliament Street, London (2017)
    Facade of Grindlay & Co headquarters, 54 and 55 Parliament Street, London (2017)
  • 'Grindlay & Co' lettering can still be seen on the railings outside 54 and 55 Parliament Street (2017)
    'Grindlay & Co' lettering can still be seen on the railings outside 54 and 55 Parliament Street (2017)
  • Railings outside 54 and 55 Parliament Street (2017)
    Railings outside 54 and 55 Parliament Street (2017)

References

  1. ^ "Royal Bank of Scotland - Heritage Archives".
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Geoffrey Tyson, 100 Years of Banking in Asia and Africa, (1963)
  3. ^ a b c d Geoffrey Jones, British Multinational Banking 1830-1990, (1993)
  4. ^ Chatterjee, Arup K. "Robert Melville: The artist, Indophile and imperialist who founded Grindlays Bank". Scroll.in. Retrieved 1 October 2020.
  5. ^ Shankar's Weekly. 1974. pp. 2, 3. Retrieved 24 August 2017.
  6. ^ History of the Bank Archived 13 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine, from the Ottoman Bank's Archives and Research Centre Archived 16 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
  7. The National Archives
    . Retrieved 12 April 2009.
  8. ISSN 0099-9660
    . Retrieved 11 June 2020.

External links
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