With Federation, the new Federal Parliament gained constitutional power over currency and banking matters. The Australian Labor Party’s platform included a pledge to establish a “Commonwealth Bank” to be “a bank of issue, deposit, exchange and reserve”. When the ALP won office in 1910, the Government duly brought forward a bill to establish the new Bank.
Indeed, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher opened the first savings account. Initially, the functions were limited to commercial ones. Over many years, the Commonwealth Bank slowly acquired central banking functions. As with many central banks, war financing brought the Bank to prominence in the 1914–18 conflict. The note issue, initially a function of the Treasury, was transferred to the Bank in the 1920s.