The history of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Ltd begins almost a century ago when, in 1907, Julius Singer founded a stockbroking firm in the City of London.

Ernst Friedlander, whose family had been bankers in Berlin since 1832, joined him five years later. As the founder of South Africa's first merchant bank and later, Chairman of the Johannesburg stock exchange, Ernst brought his unique experience to their partnership. Forced by the 1914-18 war to resign from the Stock Exchange, they turned their attention to banking, laying the foundations for what was to become one of the leading merchant banks in the City of London.

By 1920, they had been joined by Julius Stern and Max Ullman, at which point the partnership began operations under the now familiar name of 'Singer & Friedlander', and business thrived.

Becoming a publicly quoted company in 1957, the Group was subject to a series of acquisitions and eventually regained its independence in 1987. From 1987 until August 2005 the Group was listed as a public company on the London Stock Exchange. In August 2005 the Group was acquired by Kaupthing Holdings UK Limited, a subsidiary of Kaupthing Bank hf. Kaupthing Bank hf is an Investment Bank that provides a full range of corporate banking services. Kaupthing Bank hf is the largest bank in Iceland and the company is listed on the Icelandic Stock Exchange.

Today, the Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Group plc continues to build on the vision of its founders, providing clients with a highly personal and bespoke service for all their banking and investment management needs.