Westpac - History

History

Established in Sydney in 1817, the Bank of New South Wales was the first bank in Australia. Edward Smith Hall was the first cashier and secretary. During the 19th and early 20th century, the Bank opened branches first throughout Australia and Oceania, at Moreton Bay (Brisbane) in 1850, then in Victoria (1851), New Zealand (1861), South Australia (1877), Western Australia (1883), Fiji (1901), Papua New Guinea (1910) and Tasmania (1910).

• 1927: BNSW acquired the Western Australian Bank.
• 1931: BNSW acquired the Australian Bank of Commerce, which had branches in both New South Wales and Queensland.
• 1942: BNSW suspended operations in Papua New Guinea as the Japanese Army captured many of the towns in which it had branches and agencies, and bombed Port Moresby. It resumed operations in 1946.
• 1968: BNSW joins Databank Systems Limited consortium to provide joint data processing services.
• 1970: BNSW established a branch on Tarawa in Kiribati (ex-Gilbert Islands), which also took over the government savings bank. Also, the company first became listed on 18 July 1970.
• 1971: It established a branch in the New Hebrides. The next year HSBC and Commercial Bank of Australia (see below) also established branches.
• 1973: BNSW became the corporate sponsor of the Rescue Helicopter service started by Surf Life Saving Australia. The service is known today as the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter Service
• 1974: The Bank of New Zealand (20%), BNSW (20%), Bank of Hawaii (20%), and the Government of Tonga (40%) established Bank of Tonga as a joint venture.
• 1975: BNSW incorporated its local business in Papua New Guinea as Bank of New South Wales(PNG).
• 1977: BNSW formed Pacific Commercial Bank in Samoa as a joint venture with Bank of Hawaii, buying into Pacific Savings and Loan Company (est. 1969), in which Bank of Hawaii had had an ownership interest since 1971.
• 1982: BNSW merged with the Commercial Bank of Australia to form Westpac Banking Corporation. WBC was framed with the mission to become a significant Western-Pacific bank from which the Westpac portmanteau is derived. The brandname incorporated the "W" which had been the logo of the Bank of New South Wales (popularly known as "the Wales").
• 1984: The original agreement between BNSW and the government in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands expired and WBC and the government of Kiribati formed Bank of Kiribati as a 51%–49% joint venture. Bank of Kiribati also fulfilled the functions of a reserve or central bank.
• 1985: WBC replaced Barclays Bank in the National Bank of Tuvalu (est. 1981) in Tuvalu (ex-Ellice Islands), taking 40% of the shares as well as a 10-year management contract.
• 1988: WBC acquired the European Pacific Banking Corporation in the Cook Islands and a HSBC subsidiary, the Solomon Islands Banking Corporation, which HSBC had established as a branch in 1973. WBC also acquired HSBC's operations in Fiji and the New Hebrides, and established a branch in Niue that is the only bank in that country. (HSBC had established its branch in Fiji only some 18 months earlier).
• 1990: Bank of New Zealand sold half its shares in Bank of Tonga to WBC and half to Bank of Hawaii, giving each of them 30%. WBC bought Banque Indosuez's operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti. (Banque de l'Indochine, which later merged into Banque Indosuez, had established itself in New Caledonia in 1888 and in Papeete, Tahiti in 1905. In both places l'Indochine functioned as the bank of issue until 1966-7.)
• 1992: WBC recorded a 1.6 billion dollar loss, which at the time, was the largest loss for an Australian corporation. In this environment, the Bank dismissed staff and raided the superannuation to sustain its viability. In the process WBC came close to insolvency, and slipped from being Australia's largest to third largest bank.
• 1995: WBC sold its shares in National Bank of Tuvalu to that country's government, which now wholly owns the bank.
• 1995: WBC acquired Challenge Bank in Western Australia.
• 1996: WBC Holdings NZ bought TrustBanks, a chain of regional banks owned by Community Trusts, for NZD1.2 billion to form NZ largest bank, WestpacTrust. The bank had promised to keep the funding to Community Trusts flowing and to keep "Trust" in its name. However, Community Trust funding has slowed to a trickle, and in 2002 the bank launched a major rebranding which included dropping the "Trust" from its name. The merger of WBC and Trustbank also saw the closure of many branches around New Zealand. In towns and cities where both WBC and Trustbank existed, the bank merged redundant branches into a single branch; also it closed down many branches in rural areas and outer suburbs.
• 1997: WBC acquired Bank of Melbourne in Victoria, paying an estimated price in excess of A$1.4b. WBC retained the rights to the Bank of Melbourne name and logos. It has been announced that the Bank of Melbourne brand will return in August 2011, with a network of up to 100 branches in Victoria.
• 1998: WBC sold its operations in New Caledonia and Tahiti to Société Générale, which merged them with Société Générale Calédonienne de Banque (est. 1971) and Banque de Polynésie (est. 1973), respectively.
• 2001: The government of Kiribati sought to reduce Westpac's share in Bank of Kiribati from 51 to 49%, leading WBC to sell its shares back to the government. Bank of Hawaii sold its interest in Pacific Commercial Bank (42.7%) to Westpac, which held an equal portion. WBC offered Samoan investors, who held the remaining shares, the same price it had paid Bank of Hawaii. WBC now owns 93.5% of Westpac Bank Samoa and Samoan companies and individuals own 6.5%. In Tonga, Bank of Hawaii sold its shares in Bank of Tonga to Westpac, giving WBC 60% ownership of what is now Westpac Bank of Tonga.
• 2002: WBC acquired BT Financial Group and Rothschild Australia Asset Management.
• 2004: The Reserve Bank of New Zealand required WBC to incorporate its NZ branches network. WBC sold its branch in Niue to Bank of South Pacific.
• 2008: Former St.George Bank CEO Gail Kelly appointed Chief executive officer and Managing director. WBC announced that it intended to acquire the 5th largest Australian bank, St.George Bank, for A$19 billion. About 95 percent of St George shareholders voted in favor of the merger.
• 2008: On 17 November, the Federal Court of Australia approved the merger of Westpac and St.George.
• 2008 & 2009: Secret funds are secured from the Federal Reserve of USD$1.09. (see Secret Bailout 2007 & 2008)
• 2011: During July Bank Of Melbourne started taking over St.George in the state of Victoria.
• In early February 2012, Westpac announced plans to axe more than 400 domestic jobs and another 150 offshore jobs. This action was a response to much slower growth over the past several years and the need to rationalise following Westpac's 2008 merger with St. George Bank.