Bank of Mauritius & skyscrapers in Port Louis

Mauritius' central bank is the Bank of Mauritius. Its primary mission is to ensure the stability and vitality of the Mauritian financial system and to safeguard the value of the Mauritian rupee both locally and internationally. History: The bank was founded in September 1967 on the model of the Bank of England, with the assistance of the officers of that institution. On March 12, 1968 Mauritius hot its independance. Prior to the establishment of this central bank, currency was issued by a Board of Commissioners of Currency. The operation of the bank is governed by the Bank of Mauritius Act 1966 (Amended) [1]. During the nineteenth century, three different commercial banks, operated under the name of Bank of Mauritius. The first Bank of Mauritius began operations in 1813 but soon ceased in 1825. The Bank of Mauritius, the second, was British. It started its activities in 1838, having as customers the planters of the colony. In 1838 the planters founded the Mauritius Commercial Bank, MCB, ending the monopoly of the Bank of Mauritius. The 1848 London financial crisis led in a drop in the price of sugar as well as losses for the two Mauritian financial institutes. The Bank of Mauritius ceased its activities in 1848, but the MCB continued until the present time. Following the demise of the New Oriental Bank Corporation in 1894, local investors created the third Bank of Mauritius. In 1911 the bank opened a branch in the Seychelles, still attached to Mauritius. But in 1916 the Mercantile Bank of India (East 1893) acquired the bank. HSBC in turn acquired the Mercantile Bank of India in 1959. Therefore HSBC boasts to be the oldest bank on the island.