Bank of Mauritius - History

History

In the 19th Century three separate commercial banks, now all defunct, operated under the Bank of Mauritius name.

The first Bank of Mauritius started operations in 1813 or so, but survived only until 1825.

The second Bank of Mauritius was a British overseas bank with two boards of directors, one in London and the other in Port Louis. It began operations in 1832 and favored the interests of the planter class. In 1838 traders established Mauritius Commercial Bank to give themselves an alternative source of credit as until its establishment the Bank of Mauritius had a monopoly on the island. The financial crisis of 1847 in London resulted in the collapse of the sugar market, and severe losses to both of Mauritius's banks. Bank of Mauritius ceased business in 1848, though the Mauritius Commercial Bank has survived to the present.

Local interests established the third Bank of Mauritius in 1894 to take over the local business of the failed New Oriental Bank Corporation. In 1911 the bank opened a branch in the Seychelles. However, in 1916 the Mercantile Bank of India (est. 1893) acquired the bank. HSBC in turn acquired the Mercantile Bank in 1959. Because of this history, HSBC refers to itself as the oldest foreign bank in Mauritius. The next foreign bank to arrive, and to survive to the present, was National Bank of South Africa, an ancestor of Barclays Bank Mauritius.

In addition to the above three banks, a bank by the name of the Colonial Bank of Mauritius, Bourbon, and Dependencies, operated between 1812 and 1813.