COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a multinational banking services corporation. The company was founded under the Commonwealth Bank Act of 1911 and was the first bank in Australia with a federal government guarantee. The bank would move its head office to Sydney and would start acquiring central bank powers in 1920, beginning with the issuance of Australian bank notes, the same year it merged with the state savings bank in Queensland. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia would continue to grow and acquire more powers, having almost all of the central bank powers during an a WWII emergency, which would be resolved in 1959 when the bank would be split to give the central banking functions to the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, then known as the Commonwealth Banking Corporation, becoming a commercial entity. The bank would continue to grow and expand, acquiring ASB Bank and State bank of Victoria in 1989 and 1991, respectively, and becoming full privatized in the 1990s. The company would become a public company and subsequently merge with Colonia Limited in 2000. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia today is one of the largest companies on the Australian Securities Exchange and is one of the big four Australian Banks. The company currently provides five main customer facing business divisions including Retail Banking Services, providing financial needs of personal and small business clients; Business and Private banking, catering to small-medium enterprise customers; Institutional Banking and Markets, managing relationships with major institutional clients; Wealth Management, providing fund management and distribution capabilities, among others; and International Financial Services, incorporating Asian retail and SME banking operations. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia currently has approximately 45,000 employees and operates through a variety of wide ranging subsidiaries. The company has over three quarters of a trillion in Australian dollars and brings in a revenue of over A$20 billion.