Page 73 - SARB: 100-Year Journey

The National Bank, Lichtenburg, 1838. /Hardijzer Photographic Research Collection
The Nederlandsche Bank, circa 1930. Today, it is one of the protected buildings on the western side of Church Square in Pretoria. /Hardijzer Photographic Research Collection
Of the no fewer than 29 banks of the Cape, 18 to 20 were absorbed by British banks, two or three by other Cape banks, while the remainder were wiped out in the crises of 1877, 1881 and 1890 (Arndt and Richards, 1929).
The Natal experience with banking was not dissimilar. Between 1865 and 1870, five banks were founded but four went out of existence after a brief lifetime. In 1914, the Natal Bank, which came into being in 1854, was absorbed. All four of the Free State’s banks were also absorbed. In the Transvaal, the National Bank of South Africa, the region’s only institution, merged with Barclays in 1926 (Arndt and Richards, 1929).
Between 1920 and 1924, the National City Bank of New York opened a branch in South Africa, but it was liquidated a year later, and the Dutch banks in the country were fused. The Standard Bank, for instance, “represents a consolidation of no fewer than seventeen institutions including two British; Barclays Bank, a consolidation of at least eleven institutions including two British; the Netherlands Bank, a consolidation with the only other Dutch bank, viz., the Transvaal Commercial Bank.” (Arndt and Richards, 1929).
In the latter part of the 1920s, “South Africa’s grand total of about fifty banks established since 1837 dwindled to five.” Moreover, the Currency and Banking Act 31 of 1920 deprived the banks of their note issue privileges, while making this the sole responsibility of the SARB.
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