Deutsche Bank AG Bank Of Germany

Deutsche Bank was founded in Berlin in 1870 as a specialist bank for foreign trade.^[12] The bank's statute was adopted on 22 January 1870, and on 10 March 1870 the Prussian government granted it a banking license. The statute laid great stress on foreign business:

The object of the company is to transact banking business of all kinds, in particular to promote and facilitate trade relations between Germany, other European countries and overseas markets.^[13]

Three of the founders were Georg Siemens whose father's cousin had founded Siemens and Halske, Adelbert Delbrück and L. Bamberger.^[14] Previous to the founding of Deutsche Bank, German importers and exporters were dependent upon English and French banking institutions in the world markets—a serious handicap in that German bills were almost unknown in international commerce, generally disliked and subject to a higher rate of discount than English or French bills.^[15]

Founding members

• Hermann Zwicker (Bankhaus Gebr. Schickler, Berlin)
• Anton Adelssen (Bankhaus Adelssen & Co., Berlin)
• Adelbert Delbrück (Bankhaus Delbrück, Leo & Co.)
• Heinrich von Hardt (Hardt & Co., Berlin, New York)
• Ludwig Bamberger
• Victor Freiherr von Magnus (Bankhaus F. Mart Magnus)
• Adolph vom Rath (Bankhaus Deichmann & Co., Cologne)
• Gustav Kutter (Industrieller for Bankhaus Gebrüder Sulzbach, Frankfurt)
• Gustav Müller (Württembergische Vereinsbank, Stuttgart)

First directors

• Wilhelm Platenius, Georg Siemens and Hermann Wallich

The bank's first domestic branches, inaugurated in 1871 and 1872, were opened in Bremen^[16] and Hamburg.^[17] Its first foray overseas came shortly afterwards, in Shanghai (1872)^[18] and London (1873) ^[19] followed sometime by South America (1874-1886).^[14] The branch opening in London, after one failure and another partially successful attempt, was a prime necessity for the establishment of credit for the German trade in what was then the world's money center.^[15]
Major projects in the early years of the bank included the Northern Pacific Railroad in the US^[20] and the Baghdad Railway^[21] (1888). In Germany, the bank was instrumental in the financing of bond offerings of steel company Krupp (1879) and introduced the chemical company Bayer to the Berlin stock market.
The second half of the 1890s saw the beginning of a new period of expansion at Deutsche Bank. The bank formed alliances with large regional banks, giving itself an entrée into Germany's main industrial regions. Joint ventures were symptomatic of the concentration then under way in the German banking industry. For Deutsche Bank, domestic branches of its own were still something of a rarity at the time; the Frankfurt branch^[22] dated from 1886 and the Munich branch from 1892, while further branches were established in Dresden and Leipzig^[23] in 1901.
In addition, the bank rapidly perceived the value of specialist institutions for the promotion of foreign business. Gentle pressure from the Foreign Ministry played a part in the establishment of Deutsche Ueberseeische Bank^[24] in 1886 and the stake taken in the newly established Deutsch-Asiatische Bank^[25] three years later, but the success of those companies in showed that their existence made sound commercial sense.

Leveraged super-senior trades

Former employees including Eric Ben-Artzi and Matthew Simpson have claimed that during the crisis Deutsche failed to recognise up to $12bn of paper losses on their $130bn portfolio of leveraged super senior trades, although the bank rejects the claims.^[38] A company document of May 2009 described the trades as "the largest risk in the trading book",^[39] and the whistleblowers allege that had the bank accounted properly for its positions its capital would have fallen to the extent that it might have needed a government bailout.^[38] One of them claims that "If Lehman Brothers didn’t have to mark its books for six months it might still be in business, and if Deutsche had marked its books it might have been in the same position as Lehman."^[39]
Deutsche had become the biggest operator in this market, which were a form of credit derivative designed to behave like the most senior tranche of a CDO.^[39] Deutsche bought insurance against default by blue-chip companies from investors, mostly Canadian pension funds, who received a stream of insurance premiums as income in return for posting a small amount of collateral.^[39] The bank then sold protection to US investors via the CDX credit index, the spread between the two was tiny but was worth $270m over the 7 years of the trade.^[39] It was considered very unlikely that many blue chips would have problems at the same time, so Deutsche required collateral of just 10% of the contract value.
The risk of Deutsche taking large losses if the collateral was wiped out in a crisis, was called the gap option.^[39] Ben-Artzi claims that after modelling came up with "economically unfeasible" results, Deutsche accounted for the gap option first with a simple 15% "haircut" on the trades (described as inadequate by another employee in 2006) and then in 2008 by a $1–2bn reserve for the credit correlation desk designed to cover all risks, not just the gap option.^[39] In October 2008 they stopped modelling the gap option and just bought S&P put options to guard against further market disruption, but one of the whistleblowers has described this as an inappropriate hedge.^[39] A model from Ben-Artzi's previous job at Goldman Sachs suggested that the gap option was worth about 8% of the value of the trades, worth $10.4bn. Simpson claims that traders were not simply understating the gap option but actively mismarking the value of their trades.^[39]

European financial crisis

Main article: European sovereign-debt crisis

Deutsche Bank has a negligible exposure to Greece. Spain and Italy however account for a tenth of its European private and corporate banking business. According to the bank's own statistics the credit risks in these countries are about €18 billion (Italy) and €12 billion (Spain).^[40]
For the 2008 financial year, Deutsche Bank reported its first annual loss in five decades.^{[citation needed]}, despite receiving billions of dollars from its insurance arrangements with AIG, including US$11.8 billion from funds provided by US taxpayers to bail out AIG.^[41]
Based on a preliminary estimation from the European Banking Authority (EBA) in October 2011, Deutsche Bank AG needed to raise capital of about €1.2 billion (US$1.7 billion) as part of a required 9 percent core Tier 1 ratio after sovereign debt writedown starting in mid-2012.^[42]

Consolidation

Due to Deutsche Bank Capital Ratio Tier-1 (CET1) is only 11.4 percent or lower than median of CET1 ratio of Europe’s 24 biggest publicly-traded banks with 12 percent, so there will no dividen for 2015 and 2016, furthermore the bank cuts 15,000 jobs.^[43][44]

April 2015 Libor scandal

See also: Libor scandal

On 23 April 2015, Deutsche Bank agreed to a combined US$2.5 billion in fines – a US$2.175 billion fine by American regulators, and a €227 million penalty by British authorities – for its involvement in the Libor scandal. The company also pled guilty to wire fraud, acknowledging that at least 29 employees had engaged in illegal activity. It will be required to dismiss all employees who were involved with the fraudulent transactions.^[45] However, no individuals will be charged with criminal wrongdoing. In a Libor first, Deutsche Bank will be required to install an independent monitor.^[46] Commenting on the fine, Britain's Financial Conduct Authority director Georgina Philippou said "This case stands out for the seriousness and duration of the breaches ... One division at Deutsche Bank had a culture of generating profits without proper regard to the integrity of the market. This wasn't limited to a few individuals but, on certain desks, it appeared deeply ingrained."^[45] The fine represented a record for interest rate related cases, eclipsing a $1.5 billion Libor related fine to UBS, and the then-record $450 million fine assessed to Barclays earlier in the case.^[45][46] The size of the fine reflected the breadth of wrongdoing at Deutsche Bank, the bank's poor oversight of traders, and its failure to take action when it uncovered signs of abuse internally.^[46]

Sanctions violations

On 5 November 2015, Deutsche Bank was ordered to pay US$258 million (€237.2 million) in penalties imposed by the New York State Department of Financial Services and the United States Federal Reserve Bank after the bank was caught doing business with Burma, Libya, Sudan, Iran, and Syria which were under US sanctions at the time. According to the US federal authorities, Deutsche Bank handled US$27,200-clearing transactions valued at more than US$10.86 billion (€9.98 billion) to help evade US sanctions between early-1999 until 2006 which are done on behalf of Iranian, Libyan, Syrian, Burmese, and Sudanese financial institutions and other entities subject to US sanctions, including entities on the Specially Designated Nationals by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.^[47][48]
In response to the penalties, the bank will pay US$200 million (€184 million) to the NYDFS while the rest (US$58 million; €53.3 million) will go to the Federal Reserve. In addition to the payment, the bank will install an independent monitor, fire six employees who were involved in the incident, and ban three other employees from any work involving the bank's US-based operations.^[49] The bank is still under investigation by the US Justice Department and NYDFS into possible sanctions violations relating to the 2014-15 Ukrainian crisis and its activities within Russia.^[50]

Performance

Year	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004	2003
Net Income	€1.7bn	€0.7bn	€0.3bn	€4.3bn	€2.3bn	€5.0bn	€-3.9bn	€6.5bn	€6.1bn	€3.5bn	€2.5bn	€1.4bn
Revenues	€31.9bn	€31.9bn	€33.7bn	€33.2bn	€28.6bn	€28.0bn	€13.5bn	€30.7bn	€28.5bn	€25.6bn	€21.9bn	€21.3bn
Return on equity	5.1%	2.6%	-	-	5%	18%	-29%	30%	26%	16%	1%	7%
Dividend	0.75	-	-	-	0.75	0.75	0.5	4.5	4.0	2.5	1.7	1.5

^{[citation needed]}
The bank has been widely recognized^[51] for its transformation over the ten years between 2002 until 2012 for moving from a German-centric organization that was renowned for its retail and commercial presence to a global investment bank that is less reliant on its traditional markets for its profitability.^[52] Deutsche Bank was named International Financing Review's Bank of the Year twice in a three-year period, in 2003 and 2005. It also won the prize in 2010.^[53] In 2012, for the second time in three years, Deutsche Bank was named Best Global Investment Bank in the annual Euromoney Awards for Excellence.^[54]
In December 2012, International Financing Review (IFR) recognized Deutsche Bank as its Equity House of the Year and Bond House of the Year 2012. This is the first time the Bank has been named Equity House of the Year and the sixth time that it has won the top Bond award. Deutsche Bank is also the only European bank to have been awarded the top Equity and Bond awards in the same year. Highlighting the Bank's success in equities, IFR said: "Deutsche led major IPOs, took on tough risk positions (especially in Europe) and became one of the preferred banks of the US Treasury." IFR also praised the Bank’s "fortitude and skill" in bond markets, saying it combined "a steady hand with solid execution to get all kinds of deals done in just about every corner of the globe."^{[citation needed]}
Deutsche Bank won a further seven IFR awards:

• Commodity Derivatives House
• EMEA Structured Equity House
• EMEA Loan House
• EMEA High-Yield Bond House
• EMEA Liability Management House
• SSAR Bond House
• Sterling Bond House

    

The Banque Nationale de Paris S.A. (BNP)

The Banque Nationale de Paris S.A. (BNP) resulted from a merger of two French banks (BNCI and CNEP) in 1966.
The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas S.A. (Bank of Paris and the Netherlands), or Paribas was formed from two investment banks based respectively in Paris and Amsterdam, in 1872. Les Pays-Bas ("The Low-Countries") is French for the Netherlands.
In May 2000, BNP and Paribas merged to form BNP Paribas, which is thus descended from four founding banking institutions.
On 7 March 1848, the French Provisional Government founded the Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris (CNEP) in response to the financial shock caused by the revolution of February 1848. The upheaval destroyed the old credit system, which was already struggling to provide sufficient capital to meet the demands of the railway boom and the resulting growth of industry. The CEP grew steadily in France and overseas, although in 1889 there was a crisis in which it was temporarily placed in receivership.
Separately, on 18 April 1932, the French government replaced Banque nationale de crédit (BNC), which failed as a result of the 1930s recession, with the new bank Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI). The former banks headquarter and staff were used to create BNCI with fresh capital of 100 million francs. The bank initially grew rapidly through absorbing a number of regional banks that got into financial trouble. After the Second World War, it continued to grow steadily. It grew its retail business in France and its commercial business overseas in the French colonial empire.
After the end of the Second World War, the French state decided to "put banks and credit to work for national reconstruction". René Pleven, then Minister of Finance, launched a massive reorganization of the banking industry. A law passed on 2 December 1945 and which went into effect on 1 January 1946 nationalized the four leading French retail banks: Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie (BNCI), Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris (CNEP), Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale.
In 1966, the French government decided to merge Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris with Banque nationale pour le commerce et l'industrie to create one new bank called Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP).
The bank was re-privatised in 1993 under the leadership of Michel Pébereau as part of a second Chirac government's privatization policy.^[9][10]
Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Paribas) was established on 27 January 1872, through the merger of Banque de Crédit et de Dépôt des Pays-Bas, which had been established in 1820 by Louis-Raphaël Bischoffsheim in Amsterdam, and Banque de Paris, which had been founded in 1869 by a group of Parisian bankers. It went on to develop a strong investment banking business both domestically in France and overseas.
During the period 1872 to 1913, it was involved in raising funds for the French and other governments as well as big businesses through a number of bond issues. It helped the French government raise funds during the First World War and raised further capital and expanded into investments into industrial companies during the Great Depression. It stagnated and lost assets during the Second World War.
After World War II, it missed the nationalisation of the other French banks due to its status as an investment bank and managed to take advantage of that by expanding its operations overseas. It also directs its activity towards businesses and participates in the development and restructuring of French industry, including names such as Groupe Bull and Thomson-CSF.
The bank was nationalized in 1982 by the government of Pierre Mauroy under François Mitterrand as part of a law that nationalized five major industrial companies, thirty-nine registered banks, and two financial companies, Suez and Paribas. It was re-privatized in January 1987 by the Chirac government.
In the 1990s, Paribas had an active policy of acquisitions and divestiture. This included selling the Ottoman Bank to Doğuş Holding, and setting up the joint venture lending company Cetelem in Germany. It sold Crédit du Nord to Société Générale and in 1998 it merged with Compagnie Bancaire, renaming the bank with the official name Compagnie Financière de Paribas.

Founding of BNP Paribas till date: 2000–present

In 1999, BNP and Société Générale fought a complex battle on the stock market, with Société Générale bidding for Paribas and BNP bidding for Société Générale and counter-bidding for Paribas. BNP's bid for Société Générale failed, while its bid for Paribas succeeded leading to a merger of BNP and Paribas one year later on 22 May 2000.
On 9 August 2007, BNP Paribas became the first major financial group to acknowledge the impact of the sub-prime crisis by closing two funds exposed to it. This day is now generally seen as the start of the credit crisis and the bank's quick reaction saved it from the fate of other large European banks such as UBS.^[11][12]
On 6 October 2008, BNP took over 75% of troubled bank Fortis' activities in Belgium, and 66% in Luxembourg, in exchange for the Belgian government becoming the new group's major shareholder. The sales of the Fortis shares was suspended by a court order from the Court of Appeal on Friday 12 December^[13][14]
On 14 December 2008, BNP announced it could lose €350 million as a victim of the Madoff fraud.^[15]
In the end of January, the Belgian government and BNP negotiated for a 75% partnership in Fortis Bank Belgium. Fortis Insurance Belgium would be reintegrated in Fortis Holding.
On 11 February, Fortis' shareholders decided that Fortis Bank Belgium and Fortis Insurance Belgium should not become property of BNP Paribas. However the acquisition was completed and BNP Paribas took 75% share holding and renamed the new subsidiary BNP Paribas Fortis. After this only Fortis Insurance International was left in Fortis Holding and this was renamed as Ageas, a business that had Insurance all over Europe and Asia. The remaining Fortis Bank Netherlands was in the hands of the Dutch Government which merged it with other ABN AMRO holdings it already owned under the name ABN AMRO.
In May 2009, BNP Paribas became the majority shareholder (65.96%) of BGL (formerly Fortis Bank Luxembourg), the State of Luxembourg retaining 34% making BNP the eurozone's largest bank by deposits held.^[16]
On 21 September, the bank's registered name was changed to BGL BNP Paribas and in February 2010, BGL BNP Paribas became the 100% owner of BNP Paribas Luxembourg. The transfer was finalised on 1 October 2010 with the incorporation of BNP Paribas Luxembourg's business in the operational platforms of BGL BNP Paribas.^[17] In 2013 BNP Paribas was awarded the Bank of the Year award by The International Financing Review ("IFR"), Thomson Reuters' leading financial industry publication. The IFR awards are a key industry benchmark and Bank of the Year is the top honour awarded.^[18][19][20]
BNP Paribas reached an agreement in December 2013 to acquire Rabobank's Polish unit BGZ Bank for around $1.4 billion.^[21] In September 2014, BNP completed the purchase of BGZ Bank for a final fee stated in the media to be $1.3 billion.^[22]
In June 2014, BNP Paribas pleaded guilty to falsifying business records and conspiracy, having violated U.S. sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Sudan. It agreed to pay an $8.9 billion fine, the largest ever for violating U.S. sanctions at that time.^[23] BNP Paribas was fined $8.9 billion by US government for violating US sanctions, which was a record amount at that time.^[23][24]

Business units

Retail banking

Retail banking is BNP Paribas' largest business unit representing 45% of its 2009 revenues and employing 59% of the group's headcount. Its operations are concentrated in Europe, especially in the group's three domestic markets of France, Italy (where it operates as Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL)), and Belgium (as BNP Paribas Fortis). The group also owns an American subsidiary BancWest which operates as Bank of the West in the western United States and First Hawaiian Bank in Hawaii. BNP Paribas's Europe Mediterranean group also runs large retail banks in Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, and northern Africa.
BNP Paribas is the largest bank in the Eurozone by total assets and second largest by market capitalization according to The Banker magazine, just behind Banco Santander. It employs over 201,000 people, according to the bank as of 31 December 2009, of which 80,000 work in Europe, and maintains a presence in 87 countries.

Domestic markets

• France: BNP Paribas runs one of France's largest retail banking networks with 2,200 branches and over 3,200 ATMs. In Paris alone the bank has 187 agencies. BNP Paribas serves over 6 million French households and 60,000 corporate customers. In 2009 The French Retail Banking unit (FRB) had revenues of €6.1 billion (15.2% of total group's), income of €1.5 billion (15% of total group's), and employs 31,000 people (15.4% of total group's workforce)^[8]
• Italy: In 2006 BNP Paribas purchased Banca Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), Italy's sixth largest bank at the time. In 2009 BNL had 810 branches in Italy, 2.5 million individual clients, and over 150,000 corporate clients. It grossed €2.9 billion in revenue (7.2% of the total group's) and €540 million of net income (9.3% of the total group's), and employs around 13,000 employees (6.5% of the total group's).^[8]
• Belgium: BNP Paribas acquired BNP Paribas Fortis when it acquired the retail banking assets of the Belgian lender Fortis in 2009. This deal also included Fortis's subsidiaries in Poland and Turkey, now grouped in the "Europe Mediterranean" division.

United States

In the United States, BNP Paribas owns BancWest, which in turn operates retail banking subsidiaries Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank. Bank of the West operates in 19 Western US states (where it ranks as the 7th largest bank by assets), while First Hawaiian is Hawaii's leading bank with a 40% market share in deposits. Together the two banks operate 710 branches, and service 5 million clients.
The two banks were merged into BancWest 1998, and BNP Paribas took full control of the combined entity in 2001.
The group has a strong presence on niche markets such as lending for marine and recreational vehicles, church lending, and agribusiness. In 2009 BancWest had €2.1 billion in revenues (5.2% of the total group's), and 11,200 employees (5.5% of the total group's headcount).^[8] BancWest lost €223 million in 2009 largely due to its exposure in the subprime mortgage crisis in California, Arizona, and Nevada.

Emerging markets

In 2009, BNP Paribas reorganized its retail banking divisions renaming its "Emerging Markets" group the "Europe Mediterranean" group. This change was made because after the integration of Fortis Bank's Polish and Turkish subsidiaries, BNP Paribas's emerging market activities are now heavily concentrated in Eastern Europe and the southern half of the Mediterranean basin.
BNP Paribas is a member of the Global ATM Alliance, a joint venture of several major international banks that allows customers of the banks to use their ATM card or check card at another bank within the Global ATM Alliance with no ATM surcharges when traveling internationally. Other participating banks are Barclays (United Kingdom), Bank of America (United States), China Construction Bank (China), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), UkrSibbank (Ukraine), Scotiabank (Canada) and Westpac (Australia and New Zealand).^[25]      

Agricultural Bank of China

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, ABC has been formed and abolished several times. In 1951, two banks of the Republic of China, Farmers Bank of China and Cooperation Bank, merged to form the Agricultural Cooperation Bank, which ABC regards as its ancestor. However, the bank was merged into People's Bank of China, the central bank in 1952. The first bank bearing the name Agricultural Bank of China was founded in 1955, but it was merged into the central bank in 1957. In 1963 the Chinese government formed another agricultural bank which was also merged into the central bank two years later. Today's Agricultural Bank of China was founded in February 1979. It was restructured to form a holding company called Agricultural Bank of China Limited.^[9] It was listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in July 2010.^[10]
In April 2007, ABC was the victim of the largest bank robbery in Chinese history. This occurred when two vault managers at the Handan branch of the bank in Hebei province embezzled almost 51 million yuan (US$7.5 million).^[11]
In 2012, ABC started a project to migrate to the Avaloq Banking System.^[12][13]
During the 2013 Korean crisis, the Agricultural Bank of China halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.^[14]
ABC was the last of the "big four" banks in China to go public. In 2010, A shares and H shares of Agricultural Bank of China were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange respectively. Each share was set to cost between 2.7RMB and 3.3RMB per share.^[15] H shares were set to cost between HK$2.88 and HK$3.48 per share.^[16] The final share price for the IPO launch was issued on July 7, 2010. On completion in August 2010 it became the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO) surpassing the one set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006 of US$21.9 billion.^[17] This record has since been beaten by another Chinese company, Alibaba, in 2014.^[4]
ABC raised US$19.21 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai on July 6, 2010, before overallotment options were exercised.^[18] On August 13, 2010, ABC officially completed the world's largest initial public offering, raising a total of $22.1 billion after both Shanghai and Hong Kong's over-allotments were fully exercised.^[19][20] The IPO was once thought to be able to raise US$30 billion, but weaker market sentiment dampened the value.^[21] Despite a 15-month low for the Chinese benchmark index, the IPO was said to have gone smoothly.^[22]
CICC, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the Hong Kong offering, with JPMorgan, Macquarie, Deutsche Bank and ABC's own securities unit also involved. CICC, Citic Securities, Galaxy and Guotai Junan Securities handled the Shanghai portion. ABC sold about 40% of the Shanghai offering to 27 strategic investors including China Life Insurance and China State Construction. They were subject to lock-up periods of 12–18 months. Eleven cornerstone investors were selected for its Hong Kong share offering, including Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority, taking a combined $5.45 billion worth of sh^ar

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

The Commonwealth Bank was founded under the Commonwealth Bank Act in 1911 and commenced operations in 1912, empowered to conduct both savings and general banking business. Today, we’ve grown to a business with more than 800,000 shareholders and 52,000 people working in the Commonwealth Bank Group. We offer a full range of financial services to help all Australians build and manage their finances.Australia’s first banks were established early in the 19th century, either as private companies or as partnerships. Government banks, created and guaranteed by colonial (later state) governments, were established to promote land settlement and rural development, and to accept savings deposits.

It was in this tradition that, in 1911 (a decade after the Australian Colonies federated), Andrew Fisher’s Labor Government decided to establish a government bank for the newly formed nation. In the succeeding decades, many State Government banks established in the 19th century were amalgamated into the Commonwealth Bank, most recently the State Bank of Victoria (1990) and, via the Colonial merger in 2000, the Rural Bank successor to the (Government) Savings Bank of NSW.Many significant banking developments occurred throughout the 1960s. The Commonwealth Bank celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1962, Saturday morning trading ceased, employment of part-time staff began and improved career opportunities for women became available. Decimal currency, Christmas Club Accounts, personal loans and variations on traditional savings accounts were introduced.On 26 August 1990, the Commonwealth Bank entered into an agreement with the Treasurer of Victoria for a merger with the State Bank of Victoria (SBV). The Commonwealth Bank became the successor in law to SBV on 1 January 1991, creating Australia's largest domestic bank and further strengthening the Commonwealth Bank's leadership in retail branch banking.

he Commonwealth Bank Documentation and Archives Centre serves our internal needs and supplies information to the public about the organisation’s history and operations. The centre houses information about the Commonwealth Bank and other financial institutions whose archives have come to us as a result of amalgamations (including Colonial Mutual Limited and the Rural Bank of New South Wales). Sources of information include: Annual reports and other publications (including brochures, posters and advertising materials) Records about the Commonwealth Bank’s current and former properties Records about our organisational structure and staffing Photographs of people, events and buildings Ledgers, registers and commercial records Memorabilia including currency, uniforms, furniture, safes, moneyboxes and gold scales An archive of employee magazines, corporate history files, terms and conditions, product disclosure statements and circulars Film, video, and other fragile audio-visual materials. For a detailed description of the Documentation and Archives Centre, download the summary guide. You can contact the centre by Email, Phone or Fax. Material that cannot be easily transmitted by Email or Fax may be consulted on site by prior arrangement. Commonwealth Bank Documentation and Archive Centre 133-141 Liverpool Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Phone: (612) 9101 7225 Fax: (612) 9101 7232 Email: archives@cba.com.au

Royal Bank of Canada

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC; French: Banque Royale du Canada), operating as RBC Financial Group, is the largest financial institution in Canada. The bank serves 18 million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide.^[3] The company corporate headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, and its operational head office in Toronto, Ontario.^[1][2] The bank was founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. RBC's Institution Number (or bank number) is 003.
In Canada, the bank's personal and commercial banking operations are branded as RBC Royal Bank in English and RBC Banque Royale in French and serves approximately ten million clients through its network of 1,209 branches. RBC Bank was the U.S. banking subsidiary with 439 branches across six states in the Southeast, which served more than a million customers.^[4] RBC also has 127 branches across seventeen countries in the Caribbean, which serve more than 1.6 million clients.^[3] RBC Capital Markets is RBC's worldwide investment and corporate banking subsidiary, while the investment brokerage firm is known as RBC Dominion Securities. Investment banking services are also provided through RBC Bank and the focus is on middle market clients.
RBC is listed as the largest Canadian company by revenue and market capitalization by The Globe and Mail^[5] and was ranked at 50 in the 2013 Forbes Global 2000 listing.^[6] The company has operations in Canada, and 40 other countries^[7] and has 673.2 USD Bn of assets under management according to the Scorpio Partnership Global Private Banking Benchmark 2014, this represented an increase of 5.6% on the 2013 figure.           

Union Bank Of Switzerland

Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) was a large integrated financial services company located in Switzerland. The bank, which at the time was the second largest bank in Switzerland, merged with Swiss Bank Corporation in 1998, to become UBS to form what was then the largest bank in Europe and the second largest bank in the World.
UBS was formed in 1912 through the merger of the Bank in Winterthur and Toggenburger Bank, both founded in the early 1860s. UBS then continued to grow through acquisitions, including Aargauische Kreditanstalt in 1919, Eidgenössische Bank in 1945, Interhandel Basel in 1967, Phillips & Drew in 1986, and Schröder, Münchmeyer, Hengst & Co. in 1997 among others.
The historical UBS logo features a horizontal acronym "UBS" referring to the "Union Bank of Switzerland", "Union de Banques Suisses" or "Unione di Banche Svizzere". The vertical acronym "SBG" refers to the name of the bank in German "Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft". "UBS" ceased to be considered a representational abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland after the bank's 1998 merger with Swiss Bank Corporation and is today considered a standalone brand.

Industrial a And Commercial Bank Of China

  Through its continuous endeavor and stable development, the Bank has developed into the top large listed bank in the world, possessing an excellent customer base, a diversified business structure, strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness. The Bank has its presence in six continents, and its overseas network has expanded to 41 countries and regions.The Bank provides comprehensive financial products and services to 5,090 thousand corporate customers and 465 million personal customers by virtue of the distribution channels consisting of 17,122 domestic institutions, 338 overseas institutions and 2,007 correspondent banks worldwide, as well as through its E-banking network comprising a range of Internet and telephone banking services and self-service banking centers, forming a diversified and internationalized operating structure focusing on commercial banking business and maintaining a leading position in the domestic market in the commercial banking sector.In 2014, the Bank was named the “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker, ranked the first place among the Top 1000 World Banks by the Banker and the largest enterprise in the world among the Global 2000 listed by the US magazine Forbes for the second consecutive year.
Financial Highlights
By the end of 2014, the Bank’s total assets amounted to RMB20,609,953 million, up by RMB1,692,201 million or 8.9% year on year. Total liabilities of the Bank amounted to RMB19,072,649 million, RMB1,433,360 million or 8.1% higher than that at the end of the previous year. The Bank realized a net profit of RMB276,286 million in 2014, representing an increase of 5.1% as compared to the previous year. Return on average total assets stood at 1.40%, and return on weighted average equity was 19.96%. Core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.92%, tier 1 capital adequacy ratio 12.19%, and capital adequacy ratio 14.53%. Operating income amounted to RMB658,892 million, recording an increase of 11.7%. Specifically, net interest income was RMB493,522 million, growing by 11.3%. Non-interest income reached RMB165,370 million, rising by 13%. Operating expenses amounted to RMB292,280 million, recording an increase of 18.5%, and cost-to-income ratio dropped by 1.28 percentage points to 26.75%.
[Corporate Banking]
At the end of 2014, the Bank’s corporate customers increased by 359 thousand over the end of the previous year to 5,094 thousand, including 140 thousand corporate customers having loan balances with the Bank. According to statistics from PBC, the Bank had the largest balance of both corporate loans and corporate deposits in the banking industry, with a market share of 11.17% and 11.64%, respectively.
Corporate Deposits and Loans
At the end of 2014, the balance of corporate loans reached RMB7,612,592 million, representing an increase of RMB566,077 million or 8.0% over the end of the previous year. The balance of corporate deposits hit RMB8,037,133 million, representing an increase of RMB533,636 million or 7.1% over the end of the previous year.
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Business
The Bank gives priority to SMEs in credit resource allocation, and enhanced services to SMEs in diverse ways. At the end of December 2014, the balance of loans to small, micro and medium enterprises totaled RMB4,525,444 million, of which, the loans to medium-sized enterprises reached RMB2,803,904 million and the loans to small and micro enterprises stood at RMB1,721,540 million.The Bank was named the “Award of Outstanding Contribution to Micro and Small Enterprise Finance” by National Business Daily.
Institutional Banking
The Bank improved people’s livelihood related financial services, actively blazed new trails into interbank cooperation and effectively consolidated partnership with customers. The Bank kept on leading the market in the number of thirdparty custody customers and the amount of funds under custody for five straight years. The Bank ranked the first in the banking industry in terms of the amount of central finance and government business cards under agency service and in terms of the number and amount of local government bonds for which it was the lead underwriter.
Settlement and Cash Management
With diversified products system and service contents, the Bank solidifed its strength in customer base. At the end of 2014, the Bank maintained 6,126 thousand corporate settlement accounts, representing an increase of 7.3% over the end of the previous year, and the volume of settlements reached RMB1,897 trillion, up 9.6% over the previous year. The Bank maintained its leading position in the business size. Cash management customers grew by 16.6% to 1,125 thousand, including 4,374 global cash management customers after increasing by 14.7% over the year beginning.
International Settlement and Trade Finance
Leveraging on its advantages in local and foreign currency resources and close interaction between domestic and overseas branches, the Bank enhanced its services to import and export enterprises, and improved its service capability in international settlement and trade finance. In 2014, domestic branches disbursed an aggregate of USD148.6 billion in international trade finance. International settlements scaled up by 16.7% over the previous year to USD2.7 trillion. Overseas institutions handled transactions worth USD956.7 billion, up 29.9%.
Investment Banking
The Bank expanded bond underwriting business and underwrote various debt financing instruments worth RMB470.0 billion throughout 2014. In 2014, the investment banking income jumped by 3.4% from the previous year to RMB30,474 million.
[Personal Banking]
Pressing ahead with the mega retail strategy, the Bank improved the customer-oriented operating service system as well as the integrated service capability and market edges of retail banking. At the end of 2014, the Bank had 465 million personal customers, including 9.64 million personal loan customers, representing an increase of 33.30 million and 0.90 million from the end of the previous year respectively.
Personal Deposits
At the end of 2014, the balance of the Bank’s personal deposits amounted to RMB7,188,607 million, representing an increase of RMB292,768 million or 4.2% from the end of the previous year, of which, personal demand deposits and personal time deposits added by 5.3% and 3.4% respectively.
Personal Loans
The Bank put the role of residential mortgages as a main component and the pillar of personal loans system into play. At the end of 2014, the balance of the Bank’s personal loans amounted to RMB3,063,465 million, representing an increase of RMB335,864 million or 12.3% from the end of the previous year. Personal housing loans increasd by RMB349,831 million or 20.3%.
Private Banking
Private banking services were made available under mobile banking, Internet banking, WeChat services and “social networking platform” on all fronts. At the end of 2014, the Bank managed RMB735.7 billion assets for 43.1 thousand private banking customers.
Bank Card Business
At the end of 2014, the Bank issued 660 million cards, representing an increment of 85.08 million from the end of the previous year. In 2014, bank cards-based consumptions increased by 29.8% compared with last year to RMB7,491.5 billion. Bank card business income rose by 23.1% to RMB35,133 million.
.Credit Card Business
With innovations in Internet-based financial products, the Bank was the first in China to have POS online by combining the four authentication methods (Internet banking payment, mobile phone verification, 3D certification and card-notpresent payment) for universal acceptance of bank cards by online merchants. At the end of 2014, over 100 million credit cards were issued and the consumption volume expanded by 15.8% from the previous year to RMB1,868.6 billion. Total credit card loans went up by RMB59,110 million or 19.2% to RMB366,245 million. The Bank led its peers in terms of number of cards issued, consumption volume and loan volume.
.Debit Card Business
In 2014, ICBC debit card–based consumption volume ascended by 35.2% from 2013 to RMB5,622.9 billion.
[Financial Asset Services]
Embracing the opportunities of co-existing cross-industry competition and cooperation and addressing the diverse needs of customers for allocating their financial assets, the Bank expedited the establishment of an integrated business operation system across different sectors throughout the world based on the integration of the Group’s business strengths including asset management, custody, pension and precious metals, along with the functions of diversified subsidiaries specializing in investment banking, fund, insurance, etc.
Wealth Management Services
Priority was given to develop the line of net-worth products including Enhanced Return series, Stable Return series, Non-fixed Term series and Quasi-fund series. The Bank seized the investment opportunities from mixed ownership reform and made a breakthrough in purely market-based equity investment. By the end of 2014, the Bank’s stock wealth management products increased by 48.0% compared with the previous year end to RMB1,982,483 million.
Asset Custody Services
The Bank consolidated its advantages of custody services on the capital markets, and actively expanded emerging custody service markets. At the end of 2014, total net value of assets under the Bank’s custody exceeded RMB5.82 trillion, representing an increase of 26.1% from the previous year end. The Bank remained as China’s top custodian bank.
Pension Services
At the end of 2014, the Bank provided pension management services for 44,024 enterprises, rising by 4,749 from the end of the previous year. The pension funds under the Bank’s trusteeship amounted to RMB69.1 billion; the Bank managed 13.57 million individual pension accounts, and the pension funds under the Bank’s custody totaled RMB349.7 billion. The Bank led other banks in terms of the scale of enterprise annuity funds under the Bank’s trusteeship, number of individual enterprise annuity accounts and enterprise annuity funds under the Bank’s custody.
Precious Metal Business
New precious metal offerings adapting to the needs of the youth and suitable for collection and inheritance by virtue of their traditional cultural features were introduced innovatively. In 2014, the sum of precious metal business transactions was RMB1.03 trillion. The Bank cleared RMB343.7 billion on behalf of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, ranking No. 1.
Franchise Treasury Business
The Bank enhanced the service capability of personal foreign exchange settlement and sales outlets and enriched the variety of trading currencies. Bundled marketing of foreign exchange trading, trade finance and RMB and foreign currency-denominated deposits was launched to meet customers’ requirements for managing currency risk. It completed franchise foreign exchange settlement and sales of USD523.6 billion.The franchise foreign exchange trading volume hit USD160.7 billion.
Asset Securitization Business
The Bank successfully issued an aggregate of RMB5,572 million worth credit assets backed securities on 14 May 2014. The Bank served as originator and lending services provider of this project.
Agency Sales
By attracting new customers and strengthening precision marketing, the Bank increased the funds under agency sales by 19.7% compared with 2013 to RMB1,062.8 billion. The Bank conducted agency sales of RMB81.5 billion worth of treasury bonds.Widening the distribution channels of Internet banking, self-service terminals and e-commerce platform, etc., the Bank sold RMB102.7 billion worth of insurance products on an agency basis, increasing by 21.5%.
[Treasury Operations]
In 2014, the Bank actively adapted to the new normal of economic growth, adjusted investment and trading strategies at due time, took different measures to increase the profitability of treasury operations and proactively explored the innovation of business patterns and key products.
Money Market Activities
The Bank conducted a flexible operation and improved fund returns to satisfy the liquidity management needs. In 2014, domestic trading amount in the inter-bank market was RMB15.27 trillion, of which lending amounted to RMB11.25 trillion. The transaction volume in foreign exchange money markets recorded USD198.6 billion.
Investment
In 2014, the yield on RMB bond descended. The Bank took a variety of measures to raise the yield. The Bank actively optimized the structure of foreign currency bond portfolio, suitably increased the investment in offshore USD bonds of Chinese institutions and effectively improved the resistance against interest rate risk and the profitability of foreign currency bond portfolio. In 2014, the transaction volume of RMB bonds and foreign currency bonds in trading book scored RMB246.6 billion and USD12.2 billion respectively.
Financing
In 2014, the Head Office offered RMB bonds totaling RMB2.5 billion in Hong Kong and eight issues of interbank CDs totaling RMB10,640 million in the domestic interbank market.
[Channel Development]
At the end of 2014, the Bank had a total of 17,460 institutions, of which there were 17,122 domestic institutions and 338 overseas ones. Domestic institutions include the Head Office, 31 tier-one branches, 5 branches directly controlled by the Head Office, 26 banking offices of tier-ne branches, 403 tier-two branches, 3,081 tier-one sub-branches, 13,467 outlets, 30 Head Office-level profitability units along with their directly controlled-institutions and branches, and 78 major subsidiaries and their branches.
E-banking
Based on the e-ICBC strategy, the Bank closely followed the trend of mobile, personalized and intelligent banking, intensified innovation and application of E-banking products and services, and stepped up to build an integrated and open E-banking platform. It continued to build the overseas E-banking channel, and launched overseas products such as trade finance of overseas corporate Internet banking and corporate Internet banking cross-border authorization, basically completing global distribution of overseas E-banking business. The transaction volume of E-banking topped RMB400 trillion. The number of E-banking transactions accounted for 86.0% of total transactions of the Bank, representing an increase of 5.8 percentage points from the previous year.
Internet Banking
The Bank further enriched its Internet banking product lines. Innovative products, including simplified version of personal Internet banking, electronic lottery and corporate B2B settlement-backed electronic bills, were launched to solidify the core competitive edge of Internet banking. At the end of 2014, personal Internet banking customers broke the record of 180 million. The Bank was named the “Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank in China” by Global Finance for the fourth time.
Telephone Banking
The Bank optimized the self-service menu of telephone banking, and set up an information management platform for customer service centers, shaping a management system with a full range of functions and intelligent services. It also upgraded the self-service voice service of telephone banking, strengthened customer diversion from staff service and interchannel development, and enhanced the value creation capacity of telephone banking. Furthermore, the Bank expanded customer service channels, resulting in a year-on-year growth of 136% in daily average business volume of SMS banking and WeChat banking, as well as more convenient and efficient services offered.
Mobile Banking
The Bank continuously enriched business features of mobile banking, launching credit card application, remittance to any mobile phone number and other distinctive services. More application scenarios for mobile life were added to mobile banking, and emerging applications were brought in such as car rental and medical care. The Bank also upgraded the safety of mobile banking products, optimized user interactive interface and improved customer experience. At the end of 2014, the number of mobile banking customers increased by 33.6% from the end of the previous year.
Self-service Banking
The Bank intensified its efforts in self-service development, achieving initial results in intelligent service. Emerging areas including commodity trading market and key counties were mainly selected to extend service channels. The Bank optimized the transaction process of self-service terminals and increased new agent sales business of personal insurance. The Bank made intellectualized reconstruction to some outlets, and handled cash and non-cash businesses of outlets by the humancomputer interaction mode. At the end of 2014, the Bank owned 25,861 self-service banking outlets, representing an increase of 18.5% from the end of the previous year, and 92,319 ATMs, up by 14.7%. The volume of ATM transactions amounted to RMB10,852.4 billion, up by 23.5% from the previous year.
[Internationalized and Diversified Operation]
The Bank steadily advanced internationalized and diversified operation and development, and stepped up its financial support to “Going Global” enterprises, “One Belt and One Road” construction and RMB internationalization. Following Singapore Branch, Luxembourg Branch, Doha Branch and ICBC (Canada) successively obtained authorization from PBC to act as RMB business clearing banks in local countries and regions. Hence, the Bank became the first financial institution with RMB clearing banks across Asian, European and American time zones. Its RMB clearing network covered 75 countries and regions around the world. In 2014, the volume for cross-border RMB business reached RMB3.66 trillion, increasing by 65.7% over the previous year.
At the end of 2014, the Bank established 338 institutions in 41 countries and regions and indirectly covered 20 African countries as a shareholder of Standard Bank Group. The Bank also established correspondent banking relationships with 1,809 overseas banking institutions in 147 countries and regions, making its service network covering six continents and important international finance centers around the world.
As at the end of 2014, total assets of overseas institutions (including overseas branches, subsidiaries and investments in Standard Bank) of the Bank were USD235,996 million, an increase of USD26,833 million or 12.8% from the end of the previous year, and they accounted for 7.1% of the Group’s total assets, representing an increase of 0.4 percentage points. Total loans amounted to USD130,983 million, rising by USD22,862 million or 21.1%, and total deposits were USD92,449 million, indicating an increase of USD17,699 million or 23.7%. Profit before tax during the reporting period was USD3,023 million, increasing by 35.4% compared with the previous year.
Comprehensive subsidiaries delivered stronger profit contributions and strategic synergies to the Group. ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management remarkably elevated its size of funds under management, achieving balanced growth in both size and benefits. ICBC Leasing insisted on serving the real economy and consolidated its leading position in the industry. ICBC-AXA seized the market development opportunity in life insurance, taking its profitability into a higher level. ICBC International proactively promoted large-sized transnational companies and domestic enterprises listing in Hong Kong, further stabilizing its profit structure.
IT-based Banking Development
The Bank continued to improve the “big data” basis for IT-based banking development, inputted data of financial market, e-commerce platform and comprehensive subsidiaries into data warehouse, and incorporated personal Internet banking logs and other unstructured data into the Group’s database. It strengthened data analysis mining and application in terms of e-commerce, risk management, precision marketing and product classification. It integrated business handling process, continued to improve uniform view of customer information and optimized the customer-oriented marketing assessment system. It also perfected the financial asset service system constantly and realized management on asset investment and operation throughout the complete process. Furthermore, the Bank advanced the system building in respect of international and diversified operations with FOVA covering 38 overseas institutions, and accomplished comprehensive business system development in ICBC-AXA, ICBC Credit Suisse Investment Management and other subsidiaries.
The information system maintained stable operation. Among the domestic financial peers, the Bank took the lead in switching operation of city-wide host systems in two technical parks within several minutes, and transformed from traditional disaster recovery mode to dual-center parallel mode, to ensure the around-the-clock operation of global business in an all-round manner. It continued to build the group-wide daily administrative mechanism on information security and conducted tiered authorization and protection to information. By utilizing the cryptographic algorithm under national security review, the Bank reformed the financial IC card, mobile payment and other application systems, enhanced its controllability on information security protection and reinforced security protection measures for customer service system.
In 2014, the Bank obtained 50 patents from the State Intellectual Property Office, and the total number of patents owned by the Bank increased to 357.
Risk Management
To cope with increasing challenges for risk management under the new normal in the economy, the Bank proactively promoted innovative means of management with a move to toughen its precautionary measures for risk control and further the stability of its asset quality. The Bank continued to reinforce credit asset quality management, enhance NPL management, recovery and disposal, and maintain stable credit asset quality on the whole. As at the end of 2014, the Bank’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio stood at 1.13%, a slight increase of 0.19 percentage points over the end of 2013. Asset quality remained at a favourable level as compared with its peers both domestically and globally. The allowance to NPL of the Bank was 206.9%, a top level among international banks.
The Bank highlighted the improvement of corporate governance as a key move in responding to the challenges and opportunities under the new normal in economic development. The Bank accommodated to supervisory requirements on Global Systemically Important Banks, intensified the duty performance and effective checks and balances mechanism of the Shareholders’ General Meeting, the Board of Directors, the Board of Supervisors and the Senior Management, and boosted the healthy development of the Group in an all-around manner. In 2014, the Bank received various important domestic and overseas corporate awards, including the “Platinum Award for All-Round Excellence” by The Asset, the Citation for Corporate Governance Disclosure by The Hong Kong Management Association and the “Icon on Corporate Governance” by the Corporate Governance Asia.
Enterprise risk management is a process where the Board of Directors, the Senior Management and other employees of the Bank perform their respective duties and responsibilities to take effective control of all the risks at various business levels in order to provide reasonable guarantee to the achievement of objectives of the Bank. The principles of risk management include matching return with risk, internal check and balance with consideration as to efficiency, risk diversification, combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, dynamic adaptability adjustments and gradual improvement, etc.
In 2014, the Bank further improved the enterprise risk management system, proactively implemented domestic and overseas regulatory requirements on systemically important banks, strengthened the development of enterprise risk management regulations, and further strengthened the risk appetite and risk limit management system. It reinforced consolidated risk management at the Group level, with the focus on risk management of non-banking subsidiaries. It also reinforced country risk management and strengthened country risk monitoring and reporting and limit management. The Bank also propelled the implementation of advanced capital management approaches and improved the measurement system, system development and management application concerning credit risk, market risk and operational risk. Accordingly, the Bank
further improved the level of its enterprise risk management.