The Savings Bank of South Australia was founded in 1848, trading from a single room in Gawler Place, Adelaide. In 1984 it merged with the State Bank of South Australia, with the merged entity taking the latter name. The Bank of South Australia (also known as BankSA) is now a division and a trading name of St.George Bank, which is now a subsidiary of Westpac.
The Savings Bank of South Australia first opened on 11 March 1848 with a single employee, John Hector, trading from a room in Adelaide's Gawler Place. The room was provided rent-free by the Glen Osmond Mining Company. On that day it took its first deposit, of 29 pounds, from an illiterate Afghan shepherd whose name was recorded as Croppo Sing (although the Sikh masculine surname is correctly spelt "Singh"). Other deposits soon followed. A month later, the fledgling bank made its first loan, of 500 pounds, to John Colton. Colton became a successful businessman and later politician, and in 1875 was appointed to the bank's board of trustees.