Bank of Adelaide

The Bank of Adelaide was an Australian bank founded in 1865 in Adelaide, the capital of South Australia.^[1] It was incorporated by an act of the Parliament of South Australia.^[2] The original directors of the company were Henry Ayers, Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, Robert Barr Smith, Thomas Magarey and George Peter Harris.^[3]

Bank of Adelaide, Georgetown, SA, early 1900s.

Not to be confused with Adelaide Bank.

The bank had most of its branches within South Australia, including its head office at 81 King William Street, Adelaide. Interstate branches were located in Sydney NSW, Belconnen ACT, Canberra ACT, Brisbane, Dandenong VIC, Hobart TAS, Melbourne VIC, Townsville QLD, Woden ACT. The bank also had a branch in central London at 11 Leadenhall Street.

The Bank of Adelaide was taken over in 1979 by ANZ and merged into that organisation,^[4] after bailing out a subsidiary finance company (the Finance Corporation of Australia) that had lent too much to people without the security to cover the loans.^[5]