One of the great commercial legacies of the British Empire, Standard Chartered Bank took its modern shape in 1969 and over the past twenty years has entrenched itself as one of the world's leading international banks with remarkable success. Crossing Continents draws together into one narrative the evolution both of the modern banking group and of the separate banks - originally established in nineteenth-century South Africa and the Far East - that preceded it. In so doing, it offers glimpses not just into seminal developments in financial history, but also into the world-historical events which have provided their backdrop, into the young men who turned their backs on careers in Britain to cross continents in search of a more adventurous life and, colourfully, into the 1980s Big Bang that transformed the City of London.
Written with complete access to the bank's archives and personnel, Duncan Campbell-Smith's authorized history of Standard Chartered Bank shows us why British overseas banking was so often seen in the past, at home and abroad, less as a single-minded pursuit of money for its own sake than as a true hybrid of commerce and public service.
