Aspects of Nedbank’s International Activities 1945–73

Abstract

The ‘Nederlandsche Bank voor Zuid-Afrika’ (NBvZA) was still a small bank in 1945. The head office was in Amsterdam and had just been revived after the cessation of the German occupation of the Netherlands. The so-called head office of the NBvZA in South Africa was Pretoria, but was called a chief agency and the manager in South Africa was the chief agent. During the Second World War the banking activities of the NBvZA was managed by the South African government appointed controller, Mr J. Dommisse,¹ due to the suspension of the bank’s activities in the Netherlands as a result of the German occupation. The South African branches (agencies) and the bank’s London office formed the core of the bank’s activities. After the war it was clear that the banking activities in South Africa had acheived a certain degree of independence from the mother institution,² but those activities remained limited in accordance with the limited scope of the NBvZA as a commercial bank amongst other commercial banks in South Africa.