Establishment On 28 March 1914, the
Rotterdamsche Bank, together with the
Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) and several smaller firms, established the
Hollandsche Bank voor Zuid-Amerika (Holland Bank for South-America). The bank opened in
Buenos Aires under the name
Banco Holandés de la América del Sud (Banco Holandés). In 1916 the bank opened a second branch in
Rio de Janeiro, and in 1919 a branch in
São Paulo. By 1922, the
Hollandsche Bank voor Zuid-Amerika was running branches in
Genoa,
Hamburg,
Buenos Aires,
Rio de Janeiro,
Santos,
Santiago,
São Paulo and
Valparaíso. In 1918 the
Rotterdamsche Bank and the NHM, together with smaller shareholders such as the
Royal West India Mail/Royal Netherlands Steamship Company and the subsidiary of
Shell that ran Curaçao's refinery, as well as
Bank of Suriname decided to create a similar bank for the West-Indies. The
Hollandsche Bank voor West-Indië was established with head office in
Amsterdam to operate branches in
Willemstad,
Curaçao. In 1920 this bank was the first European bank to open a branch in
Caracas. In 1919, a year after the founding of
Hollandsche Bank voor West-Indië, the
Rotterdamsche Bank joined with the
Hollandsche Bank voor Zuid-Amerika to establish the
Hollandsche Bank voor de Middellandsche Zee (Holland bank for the
Mediterranean). It opened branches in
Genoa,
Barcelona,
Marseille,
Constantinople, and later
Tel Aviv.
Development The
Hollandsche Bank-Unie (HBU) was established in 1933 out of a merger between the
Hollandsche Bank voor Zuid-Amerika and the
Hollandsche Bank voor de Middellandsche Zee. It acquired the
Hollandsche Bank voor West-Indië in 1935. The HBU made further acquisitions,
S. van Dantzig & Co in 1939, and
s Gravenhaagsche Creditvereeniging en Depositkas in 1941. Further branches were established in
Uruguay (1952) and
Beirut (1954), so that by 1957, the HBU maintained branches in the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Argentina, Brazil, Israel, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Suriname. The branch network was expanded further into Ecuador, and in 1965 into
Paraguay. After the
6-Day War in 1967 the branches in Israel were closed.
ABN Era The
Algemene Bank Nederland acquired HBU in 1968, but it continued to operate HBU as a separate subsidiary under the HBU name. ABN decided to merge all its activities in the
Netherlands Antilles under the name
Antilliaanse Bank Unie. This meant a merger of the HBU's Netherlands Antilles branches,
Aruba Commercial Bank (est. 1949),
Bonaire Commercial Bank (est. 1962), and
Edwards, Henriques & Co. (est. 1856). In 1972 ABN absorbed all of HBU's overseas branches. HBU's international history ended in 2001 when
ABN AMRO sold the Ecuadorian operation it had inherited from the HBU to
Banco del Pichincha (est. 1906). The HBU name continued as a small Netherlands domestic operation within ABN. In 2007
Fortis, which had obtained HBU in conjunction with its acquisition of
ABN AMRO's operations in 2007, arranged its sale in 2009 to
Deutsche Bank to comply with
EU competition requirements. The Dutch government initially blocked the sale when the government took control of the Dutch parts of Fortis bank. However, after further negotiations, the sale was finally approved and completed on 1 April 2010 for 700 million Euro. Deutsche Bank absorbed HBU and its activities; this ended the HBU name. ==See also==