Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij

History

• 1824: King Willem I created the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (NHM) by Royal Decree to revive trade between the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies.

• 1826: NHM opened an office in Batavia (Jakarta).

• 1858: NHM opened a branch in Singapore.

• 1870: NHM extended its activities to include banking.

• 1888: NHM opened a branch in Penang.

• 1889: NHM opened a branch in Hong Kong.

• 1920: NHM opened branches in Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta (Kolkata) primarily to work with clients in the diamond business.

• 1926: NHM opened a branch in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. This was the first, and until 1948 the only commercial bank in the Kingdom. The branch existed to serve the needs of Indonesian Moslems coming to perform Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

• 1941: NHM opened an agency in New York City.

• 1948: NHM opened a branch in Karachi to become the first foreign bank to receive a banking license from the new Government of Pakistan.

• 1949: NHM acquired De Surinaamsche Bank.

• 1951: NHM opened branches in Mombasa (Kenya) and Dar-es-Salaam ( Tanganyika).

• 1954: NHM opened a branch in Beirut (Lebanon) and one in Kampala (Uganda).

• 1960: The Indonesian government nationalized NHM's local operations and formed a new bank, Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia.

• 1963: NHM set up its Malaysian head office in Kuala Lumpur.

• 1964: NHM merged with De Twentsche Bank to form Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN).