Bastianpillai Nicholas or B.P Nicholas arrived in Malaya sometime in 1892 and received his early education in Singapore. He served in various Malayan states in a company called the Federal Engineering Company and had been appointed the accountant of the Penang branch.

After leaving the company, he set up one of the first companies providing financial services in partnership with his friend a Mr Kock, a contractor based in Ipoh, Perak. This financial entrepreneurship was primarily a savings and lending business for expatriate Asians. The partnership was later dissolved and Nicholas's entrepreneurship spirit was not dimmed and he started a business under the name of B.P. Nicholas & Sons Bankers, with an office at Mountbatten Road, Kuala Lumpur.

He gradually built up his business with hard work and a good reputation and later introduced his eldest son Edwin and the other sons in turn to learn the business under him from junior positions upwards. When this family savings and lending business (including pawnbroking) had been consolidated to a point where it could be registered under statute as a bank with Issued Capital and Limited Liability, he incorporated it under the name of The Bank of Malaya Limited on December 31, 1936 that was capitalised at $180,000. The bank held its first meeting on January 9, 1937. Considering the times, he was a man of vision.

The main activity of the business was focused on handling remittances by the members of the expatriate Ceylon Tamil community of that time working in Malaya in clerical and administrative positions in Government and Mercantile establishments, who wanted to send money regularly to their families in Jaffna, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He won their trust and support with reliability and friendship and they in turn gave the bank their firm and solid support. In order to facilitate these remittances and to provide better service, he later acquired the Bank of Jaffna in Sri Lanka in 1938.

In its second year of operation, the Bank of Malaya actually reported a net profit of $16,085. In late 1938, the bank was advised by the government to change its name to the Oriental Bank of Malaya Limited. The crucial reason being the British banks were unhappy over the use of the original name as it may have appeared to elevate the status of the bank as the "Bank of Malaya" to that of a Reserve bank in some people's eyes and could have helped attract business, not only from the Tamil community but also from some established local businessmen.
BP Nicholas was highly respected by both the British and Malayans of different races in the country. This will explain why his name got mentioned in the illustrious compendium of the Who’s Who.

For an Asian to be given a respectable nine line mention during the Colonial reign reaffirmed that even the British establishment found him an admirable person to be recognised and respected for his achievements and services. His bold enterprising spirit has pervaded his grandchildren and his great grand children who have forged burgeoning professional careers in Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

https://malaysianindiansdatabase.blogspot.c...cholas.html?m=1

What happen the Oriental Bank of Malaya ?


https://www.genealogy.com/forum/regional/co...s/malaysia/346/

This post has been edited by bananajoe: Jul 12 2023, 12:35 PM

1936 - 1969

klang fella also isnt it?

I think so

I do not know what happen to Oriental Bank of Malaya but i do know Oriental Bank Berhad was merged with EON bank during the post 1997 financial crisis mega merger exercise of 54 banks into 10 anchor banks era.

Oriental Bank Berhad had thier corporate building built at lebuh pudu/ jln hang lekiu early 90s (before the 97 crisis)

This post has been edited by jojolicia: Jul 12 2023, 01:25 PM

we used to have so many core business run by all people before until somebody in power and their circle decided to do things acording to their "acuan"

this is wat u get when u mix religion into business.. now even worse, pm himself say religion must be integrated into a country's administration and how they do business.
of course people will run away from businesses like this

rip msia

It became oriental bank berhad

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&...TLajgTKrhHIyQAo

This post has been edited by bananajoe: Jul 12 2023, 01:57 PM

Cool

hari ini dalam sejarah

Isn't he Ceylonese Tamil rather than Indian?

That community always distances themselves from mainland Indians in the past and were the educated elite cadres of the British colonial civil service.

I am also ceylonese but for the benefit of all, I am just being inclusive la

As far as I know most of the community still make a distinction, at least at the boomer generation level, that they are not Indian.

Not sure about younger generation.

yup, am on the younger side. If want to stop discrimination, we should start from own backyard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastianpillai_Paul_Nicholas

Todei a lot of feel good Indian news 👀

tu zaman sebelum umno ...

bodoh...the one who did that was mahathir himself...nothing involve religion

if there was small bank that provide loan..people will not get to along to get loan..

Technically they are right. They have nothing to do with India so being called Indian doesn't make sense.

Additionally, the Tamils, Telugus, Malayalees, Punjabis, Sindhis, etc. originated from the country that is now known as India but they also cannot be called as Indians.
The reason for this is that Indian is not an ethnicity. India is just the name of the country given by the British. The name came from the Indus river which forms a small portion of the subcontinent which is now mainly inside Pakistan. North Indians call their country Barath even though the official name is the Republic of India. So, for all intents and purposes being an Indian means being a citizen of India.
Malaysian citizens who are classified as being Indians means that they are a citizen of India, which is of course absurd.

Anyway, from my travels abroad as well as dealing with many expats in Malaysia, I realize that this is a very Malaysian issue due to the chasm of racial and religious divide in our country.

Koreans and Chinese who migrated to France for example, are only identified as French.
A Chinese lady who is a Japanese citizen got really pissed when the local Chinese lady kept asking her where she is from because she has a Chinese name and can speak Mandarin, even when she repeatedly explained to her that she is Japanese.

your kids are cyclonmexican?