Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society

The Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited, later Colonial Limited, was a diverse international financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Colonial's core businesses were insurance, retirement savings, banking and funds management. It operated in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Fiji Islands for more than a century.

It was a mutual society for most of its history, and demutualised in 1997. In 1994, Colonial acquired the State Bank of New South Wales, including the bank's First State investment management business. Colonial was acquired by Commonwealth Bank in 2000. The Colonial name lives on in the Colonial First State subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank.

Colonial was founded in Melbourne in 1873. The first President of the Society was Sir Redmond Barry. The first Chief Manager was Thomas Jacques Martin.

In the 1980s Jacques Martin was established to provide administration and consulting services to rapidly expanding corporate and industry-based retirement funds. In 1989, financial advisers became a feature of the business through the purchase of Scottish Amicable’s interests in Australia. Colonial expanded its operations into Asia in 1990 and its presence in the region comprised almost 130 offices across eight markets.

In 1994, banking became a major platform of the group’s business when Colonial acquired the State Bank of New South Wales. Funds management was a key sector of Colonial’s operations since the company was established, and this business was further expanded when Colonial acquired First State Fund Managers (now Colonial First State Investments) as part of the agreement to buy the Bank. In 1997 Colonial’s stockbroking arm was established.

Colonial listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges in 1997, ending 124 years as a mutual company and beginning a new era as a publicly owned company.

Colonial carved out a unique position for itself in the financial services sector. It was to achieve growth and balance risk across a diverse range of income streams, drawn from its wide but complementary range of business operations and its broad geographic exposure.

In 2000, Colonial became part of the Commonwealth Bank Group.

Colonial was differentiated in the marketplace through its fundamental strategy known as bancassurance or ‘allfinanz’, the provision of a broad range of integrated solutions to its customers’ lifelong financial needs. These financial solutions were delivered through innovative methods of distribution that are most convenient and relevant to customers’ individual needs. The allfinanz approach was most highly developed in Australia, and it was progressively being exported to Colonial’s international operations in ways that reflect the local market conditions and opportunities.

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