Habibsons Bank Ltd - The Origin of what is now known as the Habib Group of companies can be traced to Habib Ismail, father of Dawood Habib, and his association with the firm of Khoja Mithabani Nathoo,a leading metals dealer established in Bombay in 1841.Habib and Sons was formed in the 1920’s to trade in cotton, copper, oil seeds, gold bullion and other commodities and to act as a merchant bank. This in turn led to the formation in 1941 of Habib Bank Ltd. Bombay, as a public limited company. The bank was to become the flagship of the family’s industrial and commercial ventures. Prior to the creation of Pakistan the bank moved its head office to Karachi and played a vital role in providing the basic banking and financial needs of this new country. A network of branches and training centers were established in former East and West Pakistan.As other indigenous commercial banks were created most of their senior staff came from Habib Bank.When all banks in Pakistan were nationalized by January 1974, Habib Bank was one of the largest commercial banks in South East Asia with 875 branches in Pakistan and 44 branches overseas, including 20 in the United Kingdom.