Rothschild & Co is a multinational private and alternative assets investor, headquartered in Paris, France and London, United Kingdom.

Past chairman Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild was the personal financial advisor of Queen Elizabeth II, and she knighted him in 1989 for his services to banking and finance.

[10] According to historian Niall Ferguson in 1999, "For most of the nineteenth century, N M Rothschild was part of the biggest bank in the world which dominated the international bond market.

Through the creation of a network of agents, couriers and shippers, the bank was able to provide funds to the armies of the Duke of Wellington in Portugal and Spain.

The providing of other innovative and complex financing for government projects formed a mainstay of the bank's business for the better part of the century.

[14] Nathan Mayer's eldest son, Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879) succeeded him as head of the London branch.

In 1869, Lionel's son, Alfred de Rothschild (1842–1918), became a director of the Bank of England, a post he held for 20 years.

In 1887, the French and English Rothschild banking houses loaned money to, and invested in, the De Beers diamond mines in South Africa, becoming its largest shareholders.

After the War, the Rothschild banks began a steady transition towards advisory work and finance raising for commercial concerns, including the London Underground.

In 1938, the Austrian Rothschilds’ interests were given to the Nazis, bringing to an end more than a century at the heart of Central European banking.

After the war, the British and French banks committed themselves to further developing their new operation in the United States, which was eventually to become Rothschild Inc,[18] and increased focus on mergers and acquisitions, asset management, and merchant-banking.

[19] In the 20th century, Rothschild developed into a pre-eminent global organisation, which enhanced its ability to secure key advisory roles in some of the most important, complex and recognizable mergers and acquisitions.

In recent years, Rothschild advised on nearly a thousand completed mergers and acquisitions with a cumulative value in excess of US$1 trillion.

[21] The price of gold was fixed for years, twice daily at 10:30 am and 3:00 pm, in a small room at Rothschild's New Court headquarters on St Swithin's Lane.

The five members of the London Bullion Association: Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, Scotiabank, HSBC and Société Générale, now conduct their twice-daily meetings over the telephone.

After several takeovers and a merger with the Chemins de fer du Midi, it had about 11,000 km (6,800 mi) of track and was one of the major railway companies in France.

[24] After the Second World War, the French branch of the Rothschild family took over the remains of Paris Orléans and transformed it into a holding company for its banking activities and corporate investments.

In 1962, the firm demolished and rebuilt its New Court headquarters for a third time at the suggestion of Evelyn Robert de Rothschild.

[64][65] The Rothschild family committed CHF 150 million to supporting its bank in recovering from one of the then largest financial frauds in Switzerland.

[68] In June 2019 the Appeals Court of Massachusetts (Boston) decided that von Schönau's suit against Rothschild Bank should be revived, as she had made a showing that Wilfrid von Plotho, she claims caused her millions of dollars to lose, was Rothschild Bank's agent in Switzerland as well as in the USA.

[70] Of the U.S. related accounts with an aggregate maximum balance of approximately US$836 million had U.S. beneficial owners, representing approx.

[70] In recognition of its illegal conduct Rothschild Bank agreed to pay US$11,510,000 as a penalty to the U.S. Department of Justice without having to admit any guilt in the matter.

Although there were early indications that this client could be involved in money laundering activities, the institutions decided nevertheless to enter into the relationship and at a later stage considerably expand it.

[78] In January 2021, US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was reported to have made a Facebook post blaming "Rothschild, Inc" among others for using "space solar generators" to ignite the 2018 Camp Fire, one of California's deadliest and most destructive wildfires.