Bank of Java

The first bank founded in the Indonesian archipelago was the {{lang|de|Bank van Courant}}, established in 1746, to support trading activity. In 1752, it was renamed {{lang|de|De Bank van Courant en Bank Van Leening}} ({{lit|Bank of current [accounts] and loans}}), and was given a mandate to extend loans to employees of the Dutch East India Company. In 1818, that institution closed as a consequence of financial crisis.{{cite web |website=Bank Indonesia |title=History of Bank Indonesia |url=https://www.bi.go.id/en/tentang-bi/sejarah-bi/default.aspx }}

King William I of the Netherlands granted the right to create a private bank in the Indies in 1826, which was named {{lang|nl|De Javasche Bank}}. It was founded on {{date|1828/01/24}}, and later became the bank of issue of the Dutch East Indies, issuing and regulating the Netherlands Indies gulden.

In 1829, it opened branch offices in Semarang and Surabaya. Later branch offices opened in Padang (1864), Makassar (1864), Cirebon (1866), Solo (1867), Pasuruan (1867), Yogyakarta (1879), Pontianak (1906), Bengkalis (1907), Medan (1907), Banjarmasin (1907), Tanjungbalai (1908), Tanjungpura (1908), Bandung (1909), Palembang (1909), Manado (1910), Malang (1916), Kutaraja / Banda Aceh (1918), Kediri (1923), Pematang Siantar (1923), and Madiun (1928).

Until 1891, the DJB was represented in the mainland Netherlands by the Netherlands Trading Society. That year, it opened an office in Amsterdam, which in 1922 was converted into a subsidiary known as {{lang|nl|Bijbank Javasche Bank}} or {{lang|nl|Javasche Bank Nederland}}. Some time later, DJB opened an office in New York.

Under the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies during World War II, the occupation authorities closed the Bank of Java and all other Dutch and Western banks in March 1942, and endeavored to seize as much as possible of their assets.{{R|Shibata|p=706}} They replaced it with an ad hoc central bank for occupied Indonesia, named {{ill|Nanpo Kaihatsu Ginko|jp|南方開発金庫}} ({{langx|ja|南方開発金庫}}, {{lit|Southern Development Bank}}). The Bank of Java could only reopen after the surrender of Japan in the late summer of 1945.

The Bank of Java was nationalized by the Sukarno government in 1951, and renamed Bank Indonesia on {{date|1953/07/01}}. By that time, Europeans still represented four-fifths of the Bank's employees.{{citation |author=J. Thomas Lindblad |date=2004 |title=Van Javasche Bank naar Bank Indonesia : Voorbeeld uit de praktijk van indonesianisasi |journal=TSEG: The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=28–46 |doi=10.18352/tseg.791 |doi-access=free }}

In 1962, Bank Indonesia moved to a new head office building. Its former main building on Station Square in Jakarta was left to deteriorate. It was renovated in the 2000s, and repurposed as Bank Indonesia Museum, which opened on {{date|2009/07/21}}.

In 1966, the bank's affiliate in Amsterdam became the {{ill|Indonesian Overseas Bank|nl}}, later renamed {{lang|nl|Indover Bank}}. It was eventually liquidated in 2008.

Presidents of the Bank of Java have included:

• Chr. de Haan (1828–1838)
• C.J. Smulders (1838–1851)
• {{ill|Emanuel Francis|nl}} (1851–1863)
• {{ill|Carel Wiggers van Kerchem|nl}} (1863–1868)
• J.W.C. Diepenheim (1868–1870)
• {{ill|Fokko Alting Mees|nl}} (1870–1873)
• {{ill|Norbertus van den Berg|nl}} (1873–1889)
• {{ill|Sako Zeverijn|nl}} (1889–1893)
• D. Groeneveld (1893–1898)
• J. Reijsenbach (1899–1906)
• Gerard Vissering (1906–1912)
• {{ill|Ede Zeilinga|nl}} (1912–1924)
• {{ill|Leonardus Trip|nl}} (1924–1929)
• {{ill|Gerard van Buttingha Wichers|nl}} (1929–1945)
• J.C. van Waveren (1946)
• R.E. Smits (1946–1949)
• Andre Houwink (1949–1951)
• Sjafruddin Prawiranegara (1951–1953)

The main building of the Bank of Java in Batavia was erected in 1909, on a design by Eduard Cuypers and {{ill|Marius Jan Hulswit|nl}}, on the location of the former city hospital. The building was comprehensively remodeled in 1926, was a new façade on Station Square.{{cite web |website=Indonesia, Dutch Colonial Heritage |author=Dirk Teeuwen |url=http://www.indonesia-dutchcolonialheritage.nl/jakhistoricalsites/Hosp.pdf |title=Javasche Bank, the Old Dutch City Hospital of Batavia-Jakarta and the Mandiri Bank Museum }} The head offices of the three large banks were built on adjacent lots in the 1920s and 1930s, namely the Nederlandsch-Indische Escompto Maatschappij to the north, the Netherlands Trading Society to the south, and the Nederlandsch-Indische Handelsbank to the northeast.

The Amsterdam office was opened in 1891, at 60 Reguliersdwarsstraat, in a suite of offices hosted by the Hollandsche Hypotheekbank. It moved to Keizersgracht 668 in April 1892. In 1920, DJB expanded to the nearby building at Keizersgracht 664, and in 1937–1939, the bank erected a new office building on numbers 664-666, designed in 1936 by the architecture firm of {{ill|Christiaan Posthumus Meyjes jr.|nl}} and Jakob van der Linden. The successor entity, Indover Bank, remained there until 1992, when it moved to Stadhouderskade.{{cite web |website=Amsterdams Grachten Huizen |title=Indover Bank |url=https://amsterdamsegrachtenhuizen.info/bedrijf/bedr-ijk/indover/ }}

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor van de Javasche Bank in Batavia TMnr 60047649.jpg|Head office in Batavia, before remodeling in 1926

File:2016 De Javasche Bank.jpg|Interior hall (2016)

File:Bank Indonesia Museum inner court.jpg|Inner court (2018)

File:Bank Indonesia Museum stained-glass window.jpg|Stained glass window (2018)

File:Keizersgracht 666-668, kantoorgebouw "De Javasche Bank" (1937-39).jpg|Keizersgracht 666-668, former office of the Bank of Java in Amsterdam

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor van de Javasche Bank in Bandoeng TMnr 60016843.jpg|Branch office in Bandung, built in 1918; now a museum

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het gemeentehuis en het kantoor van de Javasche Bank TMnr 10015457.jpg|Branch office in Medan

File:Bank Indonesia in Medan.jpg|The same building, now Town Hall and Bank Indonesia branch

File:Bank Indonesia Solo 2009 Bennylin 13.jpg|Branch office in Surakarta

File:Bank_Indonesia_Building,_Yogyakarta_(2025)_-_img_03.jpg|Branch office in Yogyakarta

File:Bank Indonesia Lama di Padang.JPG|Branch office in Padang

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Kantoor van Bank Indonesia TMnr 10015484.jpg|Branch office in Palembang (1950s)

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het kantoor van de Javasche Bank in Soerabaja TMnr 10015463.jpg|Branch office in Surabaya

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM De Javasche Bank te Malang. TMnr 60005905.jpg|Branch office in Malang

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Gebouw van de Javasche Bank in Koetaradja Noord-Sumatra. TMnr 60008371.jpg|Branch office in Banda Aceh

File:25 Guilders - Javasche Bank (1 April 1920) - Baldwin's Hong Kong Coin Auction (2012).jpg|25 Guilders, 1920

File:Collectie NMvWereldculturen, TM-6017-2, Bankbiljet, 'Bankbiljet van de Javasche Bank, ontwerp van Lion Cachet', 1934.jpg|10 Guilders, 1934

File:Collectie NMvWereldculturen, TM-6017-4, Bankbiljet, 'Bankbiljet van de Javasche Bank, ontwerp van Lion Cachet', 1935.jpg|5 Guilders, 1935

File:Collectie NMvWereldculturen, TM-6017-1, Bankbiljet, 'Bankbiljet van de Javasche Bank, ontwerp van Lion Cachet', 1937.jpg|5 Guilders, 1937

File:Collectie NMvWereldculturen, TM-6017-6, Bankbiljet, 'Bankbiljet van De Javasche Bank, ontwerp van Lion Cachet', 1938.jpg|50 Guilders, 1938

• Banque de l'Algérie
• Ottoman Bank
• Bank of Indochina
• Netherlands Indies gulden
• Japanese government-issued currency in the Dutch East Indies
• History of the Indonesian rupiah

{{Reflist}}

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Category:Defunct banks of the Netherlands

Category:Defunct companies of the Dutch East Indies

Category:Banks established in 1828

Netherlands Java