African Banking Corporation

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African Banking Corporation was a British Overseas Bank, that is, it had a headquarters in London but all its branches were overseas. Unusually, it was a consortium bank (i.e., other banks jointly owned it), rather than being owned by individuals. It operated primarily in South Africa.

• In 1890 Lloyds Bank, National Provincial, Westminster, and Standard Bank of South Africa established the African Banking Corporation (ABC). ABC began its operations with a branch in Lagos, Nigeria.
• In 1891 ABC acquired a number of banks in South Africa : Western Province Bank (est. 1847), Kaffrarian Colonial Bank (est. 1862), and Worcester Commercial Bank (est. 1850). That same year, it also established a branch in Tangier.
• In 1892 ABC tookover the banking operations in Lagos, Nigeria of shipping company Elder Dempster. George Neville of Elder Dempster became the branch manager, but within a year ABC wished to withdraw from Lagos.
• In 1893 ABC sold its branch in Lagos to the newly-created Bank of British West Africa (BBWA), established by A.L. Jones and Elder Dempster.
• In 1894 ABC transferred the branches in Lagos and Tangier to BBWA.
• In 1900, or possibly shortly thereafter, ABC established an agency in New York.
• In 1915 ABC established a branch in Lüderitzbucht, South West Africa, as South Africa tookover German South West Africa, but closed it the next year.
• In 1920 ABC opened a branch in Windhoek, South West Africa, but later that year Standard Bank of South Africa acquired ABC.

[edit] Sources

Terry, Carolyn. 1978. The Desert Bankers: The Story of the Standard Bank in South West Africa. Capetown: W.J. Flesch & Partners.

Orbell, John, and Alison Turton. 2001. British Banking: A Guide to Historical Records. (Aldershot: Ashgate).