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The Standard Bank was founded in London in 1862 by John Paterson from the Cape Colony in South Africa, and started business in Port Elizabeth in the following year. The bank was prominent in financing the development of the diamond fields of Kimberley from the 1870s. It later extended its network further north to the new town of Johannesburg when gold was discovered there in 1886. The bank expanded in Southern, Central and Eastern Africa and had 600 offices by 1953. In 1965, it merged with the Bank of West Africa, expanding its operations into Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. In 1987 Standard Chartered Bank sold its stake in the Standard Bank, which now operates as a separate entity.

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