Australian Bank - 400 Collins Street - 1985

Australian Bank (ABL) was an Australian

retail bank Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking. Banking servi ...

that operated between 1981 and 1989. It was established by Perth businessman

Garrick Agnew Sir Robert David Garrick Agnew, CBE (21 September 1930 – 3 August 1987) was an Australian competition swimmer and businessman. As a swimmer Agnew represented Australia at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics, as well as the 1950 British Empire ...

(its first chairman) and Sydney-based Mark Johnson (its first CEO). Johnson was also a co-founder of

Macquarie Group Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia' ...

History

At the time of its establishment in 1981, it was the first new trading bank in Australia since 1945. In the late 1970s, Agnew had expressed concerns that Australian banks weren't sufficiently competitive. During a discussion with fellow Western Australian John Stone (then Secretary to the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

), Stone suggested (possibly in jest) that, if Agnew were so concerned, he should establish a bank of his own. The bank opened offices in Perth (190 St George's Terrace), Sydney (17 O’Connell Street) and Melbourne (400 Collins Street, moving to 395 Collins Street from mid 1985). Whilst initially successful, the bank soon struggled in the wake of the turmoil in the Australian banking environment during the mid to late 1980s, particularly with bad debts arising from overseas loan funding following the floating of the

Australian Dollar The Australian dollar (sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Island s ...

in December 1983. The bank downsized through a series of staff redundancies commencing in early 1986, and finally wound up in February 1989 following its purchase by State Bank of Victoria.

References

{{Reflist , 30em Defunct banks of Australia Australian companies established in 1981 Australian companies disestablished in 1989 Banks established in 1981 Banks disestablished in 1989

History

See also

References