Formation of Orion

Abstract

‘Orion wasn’t formed after a good lunch,’ observed David Montagu, Orion Bank chairman, 1974–79.¹ It was the outcome of more than a year’s work of selecting shareholders, defining objectives and devising the new bank’s strategy and structure, and the origins of the project went back considerably further. Few of the other consortium banks were prepared with anything like such thoroughness, being often put together on the basis of personal friendships or correspondent relationships. The prominence of Orion’s shareholders, the reach of its ambitions and the novelty of its organization ensured that it burst upon the international banking scene with a clap of thunder. ‘Business leaders around the world,’ declared Michael von Clemm, ‘suddenly awoke to the significance of the consortium approach to banking.’²