Biography|Donald Neil Sanders — He Bought Victoria's Broken State Bank From This Headquarters

On 26 August 1990 the Commonwealth Bank agreed to buy the State Bank of Victoria.

Joan Kirner and Paul Keating announced the deal that day.

The headline price was $1.6 billion for the bank, inside a package worth about $2 billion to Victoria once tax compensation was counted.

Westpac had bid $55 million more for the assets. The federal package closed the gap.

The State Bank was failing under losses from its merchant-banking arm, Tricontinental.

Sanders was managing director of the Commonwealth Bank. The restored Beaux-Arts headquarters at 48 Martin Place had just come back into use that year after a five-year rebuild.

The contract was executed on 8 November 1990.

On 1 January 1991 the Commonwealth Bank became successor in law to the State Bank of Victoria, and the largest domestic retail bank in the country.

The same month his title changed from managing director to chief executive officer.

Rob Ferguson later wrote that Sanders avoided the 1980s excess, stayed out of Bond and Skase, and still picked up the fallen competitor.

The columns on Martin Place still carry the Bank's name.

Photo: J. Bar, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons