Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China , Chartered Bank

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, known from 1956 as The Chartered Bank, was established by Royal Charter in 1853. It was an overseas exchange bank, based in and controlled from the City of London. It was established to take advantage of the end of the East India Company's monopoly in 1853.

The bank operated in India and throughout the Far East - in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam [Thailand], Burma [Myanmar], Singapore, Malacca, Penang and the Malay States, the Philippines, Japan, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon [Sri Lanka], North Borneo, Brunei, Sarawak, Pakistan and East Pakistan. There were also branches in New York [United States of America] and Hamburg [Germany]. Despite its name, the bank never operated in Australia.

Further UK branches opened in Manchester (1937) and Liverpool (1948). The bank gained a second London office and additional branches in India, Pakistan, China and Ceylon with the takeover in 1938 of the P and O Banking Corporation.

The bank's activities in the Far East were severely disrupted by World War Two and nationalist post-war governments in the region. The takeover in 1957 of rival Eastern Bank presented new opportunities. Eastern Bank was active in Chartered Bank's traditional areas of operation, but also had branches in the Middle East - in Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Qatar, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Oman. In the same year, Chartered Bank purchased the Ionian Bank's interests in Cyprus.

The bank operated from various City of London addresses: 1852 first two meetings of directors at 8 Austin Friars; November 1852 offices acquired at 21 Moorgate. December 1853- 1855 rented offices at South Sea House, Threadneedle Street. 1855 rented offices at 34 Gresham House, Old Broad Street. June 1857-1866 rented offices in the City Bank building at Threadneedle Street. 1867 Former Hatton Court building on Threadneedle Street. In 1909 they moved into newly built premises on the former site of Crosby Hall where they were still at the time of the merger with Chartered Bank in 1969.

For further information on the history of the bank see Sir Compton Mackenzie, Realms of silver: one hundred years of banking in the East (London, 1954) and Geoffrey Jones, British multinational banking 1830-1990 (Oxford, 1993).

The bank's legal department operated from its Head Office in London, and was responsible for dealing with a wide variety of legal cases and issues for the bank. For much of its work, staff in the Legal department would work in tandem with the bank's appointed firm of solicitors. Much cross-over between the work of the Legal, Inspection and Secretary's departments can be noted, as all three would be involved if cases of bankruptcy or liquidation of a bank customer took place, or if a legal action was filed against the bank by a customer.

The first legal assistance the Chartered Bank received was from solicitors Phillips and Sons, 11 Abchurch Lane, City of London, who at the time were solicitors acting primarily for large firms in the City and advised the bank at the time of its first approaches to gain a Royal Charter. By November 1852, Messrs Oliverson, Lavie and Peachey had taken over this role which they held until December 1864, when a decision was made by the bank's Board of Directors to cease the employment of the firm.

In November 1871 the bank appointed Linklaters and Company as their solicitors, who acted on their behalf well into the second-half of the Twentieth Century as Linklaters and Paines.