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150 years old, and still going strong

November 19, 2008

It was a moment of pride for British bank Standard Chartered, which completed 150 years in India a few months ago.

As part of the celebrations, the postal department released a commemorative stamp that was launched by President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Standard Chartered, incidentally, is India's oldest and largest international bank.

Known simply as Chartered Bank when it first set foot in India, Standard Chartered opened its first Indian branch in Kolkata on April 12, 1858. In the same year, it also opened branches in Mumbai and Shanghai.

Eight years after it opened, the bank's Kolkata agent described its local credit as splendid and its business as flourishing. Kolkata was then the centre for jute and indigo trade. With the growth of the cotton trade and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Mumbai took over from Kolkata as India's main trade centre.

Image: Jaspal Bindra, CEO-Asia, Stanchart; President Pratibha Patil; Meera Dutta, member, Postal Services Board and Peter Sands, group chief executive, Standard Chartered, at the release of the commemorative postal stamp at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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