Reserve Bank of Australia Annual Report – 1962 Fifty Years Ago

This is the third Annual Report of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia, the name of the body corporate formerly known as the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which on 15th July, 1912, fifty years ago, first opened its doors for business.

These years, which saw two world wars and a world economic depression, as well as great expansion of Australian population and production, were years of rapid growth and increasing responsibilities for the Bank. Central banking functions, which had their real beginnings in the 1920's, developed particularly during the Second World War. After the war, monetary and banking powers which the Bank had been exercising under emergency wartime regulations were embodied in the banking legislation of 1945.

Following the enactment of the Reserve Bank Act 1959, these central banking functions since January, 1960, have been exercised by the Reserve Bank of Australia as a separate central bank.