Banque de l'Indochine
The Banque de l'Indochine (French:
The
History
Background and creation
Following the early phases of the
In October 1874, the CEP, together with its allies, the Hentsch-Lütscher, Hoskier, and
Colonial bank of issue
The first banknotes, printed in Paris by the
Following the
The bank opened branches (
On 13 August 1891, for the first time, the Banque de l'Indochine printed its own piastre banknotes at a new facility in Saigon.[17] In 1898, it issued the first banknotes denominated in French Indian rupees.[18]
In 1900, the bank's Shanghai office participated in the financing of the French contribution to the international expeditionary corps that suppressed the Boxer Rebellion,[19] and subsequently represented the interests of the French government in handling the Boxer indemnity.[citation needed] The Banque de l'Indochine invested in a number of colonial ventures such as the Société de construction des Chemins de fer Indochinois and the Chemins de fer de l'Indochine et du Yunnan,[9] for which the French government asked it to open an office in Mongtze (now Mengzi) in 1914.[20] It repeatedly entered new territories at the request of the French government. In July 1908, it thus established an office in Djibouti to co-finance the Compagnie du Chemin de fer de Djibouti à Addis-Abeba,[6] the first-ever bank in the city.[21][22] In 1918, it opened an office in Vladivostok to serve the Allied military base there during the Siberian intervention.[23]
In July 1921, the
In the 1920s the Banque de l'Indochine participated in more colonial ventures, such as the
Throughout the 1920s, the French Parliament extended the Banque de l'Indochine's issuance privilege only for short periods of time, from 1920 to 1925 on an annual basis, and then every semester, in contrast to earlier long-term extensions.[29] The Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, which by then had become the Banque de l'Indochine's major competitor, provided covert funding to advocacy efforts against further extension.[30] On 31 March 1931, new French legislation eventually extended the bank's issuance privilege by 25 years, against which the French state participated in a capital increase and subsequently held 20 percent of the bank's equity capital as well as extensive rights in its governance. These included six board memberships and the selection of the board chair.[2] The French government initially kept René Jules Thion de la Chaume, a traditional banker, as chairman of the Banque de l'Indochine, but in 1936 replaced him with a lifetime civil servant, Marcel Borduge.[31]
Also in 1931, the Banque de l'Indochine participated in the establishment of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, and in a capital increase of the State Bank of Morocco, despite the latter being under the BPPB's dominant influence.[32]
World War II
During
In 1940 the bank established offices in London and Yokohama,[36] and in November 1942 relocated the latter to Tokyo[37] until it closed in September 1945. Under Japanese occupation, the bank's offices in Hong Kong and Singapore ceased activity in early 1942, and those in China were reduced to near-complete paralysis.[33] In Pondicherry, the news of the armistice of 22 June 1940 were met with panic and triggered a bank run on the Banque de l'Indochine. This in turn played a role in the decision by Louis Bonvin, Governor of French India, to reverse his prior allegiance to Vichy France and rally to Free France, which allowed the bank to receive financial support from the British Raj.[38]
Postwar history
The future of the Banque de l'Indochine was vividly debated in the new political context created by the liberation of France. In 1945, the French government decided to revalue the French Indochinese piastre to a rate of 17 French francs to one piastre, up from 10, a decision that initiated a bout of trafficking and corruption that would become known as the piastres affair (French: scandale des piastres); that same year, the CFP franc replaced the piastre as the currency of French Polynesia and New Caledonia. In 1947, following protracted negotiations, the Banque de l'Indochine approved the decision to buy back the French government's 20 percent equity stake, despite a steep price imposed by Finance Minister Maurice Schumann. Its issuance privilege was revoked in principle by a law of 25 September 1948, but was kept in practice until March 1949 in Djibouti, December 1951 in Indochina (where it was transferred to the Institut d'Émission des États du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viet-nam), and March 1967 in French Polynesia and New Caledonia. Meanwhile, the Banque de l'Indochine developed its activity, as an increasingly active investment bank in France, and a retail and commercial bank internationally, both in the colonies rebranded as French Union and in other countries, such as South Africa.[3]: 456–458
The bank's activities in mainland China were partly revived after the defeat of Japan in 1945 (as were the offices in Hong Kong and Singapore), kept for a while after the Communist victory of the Chinese Civil War in 1949,[39] but eventually liquidated in the 1950s. Meanwhile, the bank endeavored to diversify away from its traditional colonial turf. In 1946 it established itself in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where it stayed until 1963, and for a few years in the early 1950s also in Dire Dawa. In Saudi Arabia, it opened a branch in Jeddah in 1947,[40] followed by Dammam and Khobar-Dhahran in the 1950s. It was also briefly established in Al Hudaydah, Yemen ca. 1949–1951. It created subsidiaries in San Francisco (French American Banking Corporation) in 1947 and Johannesburg (French Bank of South Africa) in 1949.[39] In the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, it established a branch in Port Vila in 1948, and an office in Luganville in the 1950s. It also opened locations in Malaysia in 1951, Tokyo (again) in 1953,[40] and Lausanne in 1957.[41]
Even so, Indochina still represented more than half of the bank's income in the early 1950s.
In 1954–1955, the Banque de l'Indochine also ceased its activity in Pondicherry following the de facto end of French India; its branch was acquired by Indian Overseas Bank.[45] In 1963, its activity in Cambodia was nationalized.
By the early 1950s, the Banque de l'Indochine also had a broad network of minority stakes in other banks, including the
Merger into Banque Indosuez
In 1966, to prevent an outright takeover of military-industrial concern
Sites
The Banque de l'Indochine used or commissioned a number of prominent buildings, some of which are notable exemplars of French colonial architecture.
Paris
Originally, the bank was established at 34, rue Laffitte, in a building that was later demolished.[46] In July 1902, it moved to a new headquarter building nearby on 15 bis, rue Laffitte, designed by Henri Paul Nénot and whose exterior still survives.[47]
In March 1922, the bank moved to a new and larger building started in 1913 but whose construction was interrupted by World War I,[48] on 96 boulevard Haussmann, designed by architect René Patouillard-Demoriane. That building remained the seat of Banque Indosuez until the late 1990s. It was largely rebuilt behind the preserved original façade in the mid-2000s, on a design by Jean-Jacques Ory.[49]
Indochina
The bank's seat of
That building was sold and transferred in 1955 to the
From 1955 to 1975 the Banque française de l'Asie, South-Vietnamese subsidiary of the Banque de l'Indochine, had its Saigon seat in the former building of the Diethelm group, also on the Quai de Belgique.[51]
The bank's
The Haiphong branch office, established in 1885, was replaced with a new building designed by architect Collet and inaugurated on 19 October 1925.[55] It has been used by the State Bank of Vietnam since 1955.
The Nam Định office was established in 1926 in a provisional location, and moved to a permanent building inaugurated on 13 May 1929, designed by Félix Dumail , that is still in use by the State Bank of Vietnam.[56]
The office of the Banque de l'Indochine in Phnom Penh was built in the early 1890s and rebuilt in the early 20th century. In 1965, Cambodian industrialist Van Thuan acquired it and made it the headquarters of his enterprises. He relocated in Hong Kong in 1969, and his Cambodian properties were expropriated in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge regime. The building was then taken over by the National Bank of Cambodia. In 2003, Van Thuan's family bought back the building from the Cambodian authorities and subsequently renovated it. His daughter Van Porleng opened a French fine dining restaurant there, branded Van's, in December 2007.[57]
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Old seat of the bank in Saigon (now demolished), late 19th or early 20th century
-
The Saigon bank's building at night, with Bitexco Financial Tower in background
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Rear view of the Saigon building
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Aerial view of the Saigon bank building (bottom center) and the Rạch Bến Nghé canal
-
Drawing by Félix Dumail for the bank's new building in Hanoi
-
The Nam Dinh office shortly after completion
Thailand
The branch building in
China
The bank's building in Shanghai, on No.29 Bund, was completed in 1914 on a design by the local Atkinson & Dallas architecture firm. It is now the Shanghai Bund (Waitan) subbranch of China Everbright Bank.[60][61]
The polychrome brick building of the Banque de l'Indochine in the French concession of Hankou, on the "French Bund" embankment of the Yangtze river, was constructed in 1901-1902 and has been carefully restored.
In the
The bank's building in the French concession of Tianjin was completed in late 1908.[21] The Banque de l'Indochine kept staff there until the second half of the 1950s. It was later used as a venue by the Tianjin Fine Arts Museum.[64]
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Prince's Building, where the Banque de l'Indochine had its office in Hong Kong
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The bank's building on Shamian Island in Canton, 1908
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The Hankou office in 1911
India
The bank's branch in
French Polynesia
The bank's main branch in French Polynesia has been located on the same site, just south of Papeete's Notre Dame Cathedral, since its establishment in 1904. It has been rebuilt on several occasions.[66]
Djibouti
In 1908, architect Faucon designed a building in traditional Yemeni style for the bank on Boulevard Bonhoure. In 1954, the bank relocated to a new international style office, which it had built on the site of the former Hotel de France nearby on 10, Place Lagarde.[67] This building was later used and remodeled by the Banque pour le Commerce et l'Industrie – Mer Rouge, which in June 2020 sold it to Djibouti's National Social Security Fund (French: Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale).[68]
Leadership
The bank's two key leadership positions were that of chairman (French: président) and chief executive or general manager (French: directeur). The latter was also often a member of the board (French: conseil d'administration), in which case he held the title of administrateur délégué.
Chairmen
- Édouard Hentsch (January 1875-March 1889)
- Charles Sautter (March 1889-April 1892)
- Ernest Denormandie (June 1892-late 1889 or early 1900)
- Jean Hély d'Oissel (late 1889 or early 1900-June 1920)
- Albert Guillemin de Monplanet (June 1920-March 1927)
- Stanislas Simon (May 1927-July 1931)
Interim (July 1931-July 1932)
- René Jules Thion de la Chaume (July 1932-November 1936)
- Marcel Borduge (November 1936-February 1941)
- Paul Baudoin(February 1941-September 1944)
- Emile Minost (April 1945 – 1960)
- François de Flers (1960-1974)
- Jean Maxime-Robert (1974-1975)
Chief executives
- Pierre Girod (January 1875-March 1889), also board member and administrateur délégué from the bank's creation
- Stanislas Simon (March 1889-June 1920), also board member and administrateur délégué from May 1909, and chairman in 1927
- René Jules Thion de la Chaume (June 1920-July 1931), also board member from June 1930, administrateur délégué in 1931, and chairman in 1932
- Paul Baudoin(July 1931-March 1940), also board member from November 1936, and chairman in 1941
- Jean Laurent (March 1940-September 1952)
- François de Flers (October 1952 – 1960)
- Jean Maxime-Robert (1960-1974)
Banknotes
In addition to its issuance privilege in French colonies, the Banque de l’Indochine, like other foreign banks in China at the time, issued
-
20 piastres (Indochina), 1898
-
1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1901
-
100 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1901
-
1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1902
-
1 dollar/piastre (Canton), 1902
-
5 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
-
5 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
-
10 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
-
10 dollars/piastres (Canton), 1902
-
1 piastre (Indochina), 1930s
-
100 piastres (Indochina), 1932
-
1 rupee (Pondicherry), late 1930s
-
50 rupees (Pondicherry), early 1940s
-
1 piastre (Indochina), 1942-1945
-
5 Francs (Djibouti), 1943
-
1 piastre (Indochina), 1951
See also
- Paper money of the Qing dynasty
- Imperial Ottoman Bank
- National Bank of Haiti
- Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale
- State Bank of Morocco
- Banque de Madagascar
- Société financière française et coloniale
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External links