Bank of British Columbia

There have been two Canadian banks with the name Bank of British Columbia.

The first was established by Royal Charter in 1862, with its head office in London. Between 1862 and 1871 it issued dollar banknotes. By 1885 it had branches in San Francisco, Portland, Oregon (est. 1866), Victoria, British Columbia (est. 1862) and New Westminster (est. 1862). In 1889 it established a branch in Seattle. In 1901 it merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce. At the time of the merger it had branches at Vancouver (est. 1886), Victoria, Kamloops, Nanaimo, Nelson, New Westminster, Rossland, Sandon, San Francisco, Portland, and London.

There is $48,797.00 in outstanding bank notes from the bank of British Columbia. The bills are in $1, $5, $10, $20 and $50 denominations. The bills were issued from 1863 to 1894. The bills bring anywhere from $500 to $1500 for each bill on the collectors market.

The Bank of British Columbia in Victoria, British Columbia was built in 1885 and was designated as a heritage site by the City of Victoria in 1975.

The Bank of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia was built in 1889 to 1891 and was added to Vancouver's Community Heritage Register in 1986.

The second bank was chartered in 1966 with headquarters in Vancouver and was the creation of W.A.C. Bennett, the Premier of British Columbia. Mr. Bennett, a businessman, wanted to end Central Canada's control over the banking industry which obliged all but the smaller loans for companies in British Columbia to receive authorization from Head Office in either Montreal or Toronto.

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