Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Ltd

The Chartered Bank was founded by James Wilson following the grant of a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1853. The bank opened in Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata and Shanghai in 1858, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore in 1859. The traditional trade was in cotton from Mumbai, indigo and tea from Kolkata, rice from Burma, sugar from Java, tobacco from Sumatra, hemp from Manila and silk from Yokohama. The bank played a major role in the development of trade with the East following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the extension of the telegraph to China in 1871. In 1957 Chartered Bank bought the Eastern Bank, together with the Ionian Bank's Cyprus Branches and established a presence in the Gulf. The Standard Bank The Standard Bank was founded in the Cape Province of South Africa in 1862 by John Paterson, and started business in Port Elizabeth in the following year. The bank was prominent in financing the development of the diamond fields of Kimberley from 1867. It later extended its network further north to the new town of Johannesburg when gold was discovered there in 1885. The bank expanded in Southern, Central and Eastern Africa and had 600 offices by 1953. In 1965, it merged with the Bank of West Africa, expanding its operations into Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Address: 48 Westlands Road, Nairobi, Kenya P.O. Box 30003 – 00100 GPO, Nairobi, Kenya

Phone: +254 20 329 3000
FAX: +254 2 214086