First Offices: Banks and Financial Institutions

Our new blog series, “First Offices”, explores the origins of some of the world’s biggest companies. Last time, we took a look at companies like Apple, Facebook and Google, and in today’s instalment we’re focusing on a number of renowned financial institutions. The shiny, imposing bank towers of today are a far cry from their humble beginnings!

HSBC

This particular bank was the brainchild of Scotsman Thomas Sutherland, who worked for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In his line of work, he discovered there was a need for banking facilities in Hong Kong and on the Chinese Coast. As a result, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited was established – the first branch opened in Hong Kong on 3rd March 1865, and the Shanghai branch opened a month later in April. Established with the intent of financing trade between Europe, China and India, HSBC now has over 6600 branches in 80 countries.

Barclays

Barclays was formed as a small private family bank in 1690 by two goldsmith bankers, John Freame and Thomas Gould, who worked in Lombard Street, London. The name “Barclays” came about in 1736 when John Freame’s son, Joseph, took on his brother-in-law, James Barclay as a partner. In order to compete with larger joint stock banks, 20 small families joined together in 1896 to form Barclay and Company Limited. Over the years, the bank grew through a number of mergers and acquisitions, and extended its reach around the world.  In 1967, Barclays installed the world’s first automated cash machine in Enfield, North London. Known today as Barclays PLC, the bank employs over 140 000 people, and operates in more than 50 countries.

Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Bank was established in Birmingham in 1765 by John Taylor, a button maker, and by iron producer and dealer Sampson Lloyd II. The bank operated under the name “Taylors & Lloyds”, and for the first 100 years of the company’s history, had only one office in the town. Lloyds continued to grow by merging with a number of other financial institutions – by the time it merged with TSB (Trustee Savings Bank) in 1995, Lloyds had already taken over more than 200 smaller banks. In 2009, Lloyds took over HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland), whereupon the banks then current name, Lloyds TSB, was changed to the Lloyds Banking Group. The acquisition of HBOS also meant that the Bank of Scotland became a subsidiary of Lloyds.

RBS Group

The RBS Group, otherwise known as the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, consists of a number of subsidiary companies, which include The Royal Bank of Scotland, National Westminster Bank, Ulster Bank, Drummonds Bank, and Coutts, among others.

The Royal Bank of Scotland was officially established in 1727, after King George the first granted a royal charter. According to the terms of the 1707 Union between England and Scotland, the Scots were to be paid compensation for their losses in the Darien disaster of the 1690s. A company was then formed to manage the payments, but the directors soon noticed that they had money to spare, and petitioned the king for permission to establish a bank. There was then fierce rivalry between the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the Bank of Scotland, which had been established some years earlier. Indeed, in the years after 1727, each bank tried to bankrupt the other by hoarding and then presenting for payment large quantities of its opponent’s banknotes!

In 1969, the bank merged with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, and in 1979 the name of the holding company was changed to the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Today, the RBS Group has over 3700 branches around the world, with 33 million customers.