State Bank of New South Wales

The State Bank of New South Wales, (from 1933 until 1982 known as the Rural Bank of New South Wales), was a bank that was owned by the Government of New South Wales. It existed from 1933 until 1994, when it was taken over by the Colonial State Bank and then the Commonwealth Bank in 2000.

Not to be confused with Bank of New South Wales.

State Bank of New South Wales

Formerly	Rural Bank of New South Wales
Industry	Financial services
Predecessor	Government Savings Bank of New South Wales
Successors	Colonial First State Commonwealth Bank
Founded	1 July 1933 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Defunct	1994
Headquarters	Martin Place
Area served	New South Wales

History of Operations

Founding

Its predecessor was the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales, which failed and later merged with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in 1931.[1] The bank started in 1933 as the Rural Bank of NSW, which was a bank that primarily lent to and dealt with farmers. In 1982 the bank's name was changed to the State Bank of NSW and so was its mandate, to that of a standard commercial bank, although it had been operating in this way for some years. It did, however, keep its famous slogan 'We do more for you personally'.

The Bank was 'corporatised' in 1990, under the State Owned Corporations Act 1989 (NSW) and the State Bank (Corporatisation) Act 1989 (NSW). On 14 May 1990 the existing State Bank was dissolved, and all of its assets and business undertaking were vested in an incorporated State Bank, limited by shares.[2]

Acquisitions

In 1994 the bank was sold to Colonial, a financial services company. The bank changed its name to Colonial State Bank in 1996. In 2000 it too was taken over, this time by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Similar named corporation

This bank should not be confused with the Bank of New South Wales, which was founded as Australia's first bank, operating from 1817 and the precursor of what became the Westpac Banking Corporation in 1982.

Chairmen

• William O’Malley Wood, June 1933 – April 1934[3]
• Sir Clarence McKerihan, April 1934 – 1961[4]

Former bank buildings

• 
  Former Rural Bank Head Office, Martin Place, Sydney, now demolished
• 
  Former State Bank Head Office, Martin Place, Sydney, showing bank logo in granite facade
• 
  West Wyalong, New South Wales Branch
• 
  Detail West Wyalong Branch
• 
  Leeton, New South Wales Branch
• 
  Griffith, New South Wales Branch
• 
  Corowa, New South Wales Branch
• 
  Dareton, New South Wales Branch

References

1. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aehr.121004
2. Commissioner of Taxation v Bank of Western Australia Ltd; Commissioner of Taxation v State Bank of New South Wales (1995)
3. Frank Cain, 'Wood, William Henry O’Malley (1856–1941)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/wood-william-henry-omalley-13255/text6475, published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 3 September 2015.
4. Melanie Oppenheimer, 'McKerihan, Sir Clarence Roy (1896–1969)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mckerihan-sir-clarence-roy-10991/text19541, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 3 September 2015.

External links

Media related to State Bank of New South Wales at Wikimedia Commons