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Helbert, Wagg & Co. was formed in 1848 by two London stockbrokers, John Helbert (1785-1861) and his nephew John Wagg (1793-1878). The two men, from families originating in Germany, were members of London’s Jewish community, and John Helbert’s wife, Adeline Cohen, was the sister of Hannah, wife of Nathan Rothschild. Helbert, Wagg & Co.’s principal client was the firm of N.M. Rothschild & Sons.

From the 1860s Helbert, Wagg & Co. had also been engaged in the issuing and underwriting of securities. This became its principal activity when, in 1912, the firm resigned from the London Stock Exchange and ceased to be a stockbroker.

In 1919 the firm incorporated as Helbert, Wagg & Co. Ltd, with Alfred Wagg (1877-1969), the grandson of John Wagg, and other members of the family as the majority shareholders. Alfred Wagg was chair of the firm from 1922 until 1954, his most important contribution to its success being his ability to attract and retain high calibre staff. His executive team included Nigel Campbell, Bernard Barrington, Lawrence Jones, Albert Palache and Max Bonn.

In the 1920s the firm began offering investment management services, launching four investment trusts during the interwar years. It also engaged in foreign exchange dealing – run by Lionel Fraser and George Bolton - and international securities arbitrage. In addition, the firm made large bond issues for European governments and public authorities, and provided corporate finance services for British manufacturing companies and financial trusts.

In 1946 Lionel Fraser became deputy chair, replacing Alfred Wagg as chair in 1954. In the post-war years the firm took on pension fund management, and also developed expertise in mergers and acquisitions. The new executive team included Gordon Gunson, James O’Brien, Alan Russell, Michael Verey and Charles Villiers.

In 1960 the firm merged with Schroders Limited, the two firms becoming fully integrated in the operating company J. Henry Schroder Wagg & Co. Ltd in 1962.

The brothers Johann Friedrich Schröder (1780-1852) and Johann Heinrich Schröder (1784-1883), sons of the successful Hamburg merchant Christian Matthias Schröder (1742-1821), came to London in 1800 and 1802 respectively. Alongside mercantile activities, specialising in sugar, their firm acted as an acceptor of bills of exchange. After his elder brother's retirement in 1817, Johann Heinrich Schröder set up his own firm, J. Henry Schröder & Co. in 1818. He maintained close ties with Germany through his Hamburg firm of J.H. Schröder & Co., set up in 1819, and in 1839 he also opened a firm in Liverpool.

Johann Heinrich Schröder retired to his country estate in Mecklenburg in 1849 and was succeeded as senior partner by his son Baron Sir John Henry William Schröder (1825-1910). From 1853 the firm began issuing bonds, at first for overseas railway construction and from 1863 for sovereign states.

In 1895, Baron Sir John Henry's nephew Baron Bruno Schröder (1867-1940) joined the partnership, becoming senior partner in 1910. In 1923 the partnership set up a commercial bank in New York, the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation, and related American investment banking entities. Investment management activity began in 1924 with the launch of the firm's first investment trust.

The German declaration of a moratorium ('Standstill') on the repayment of foreign debt in 1931 caused the firm in London to severely curtail its business activities. It was not until 1953, under Baron Bruno's son Helmut Schroder (1901-1969), that recovery of the Standstill debts could begin to be made and the firm could restructure.

In 1957 it became a private limited liability company, and in 1959 the partnership was dissolved and a publicly listed holding company, Schroders Limited, was set up to take ownership of the firms of J. Henry Schroder & Co. Ltd. and the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation. In 1960 Schroders Ltd bought the investment bank Helbert, Wagg & Co. Ltd. and in 1962 it was fully operationally merged with J. Henry Schroder & Co. Ltd. to form J. Henry Schroder Wagg & Co. Ltd.

Robin Wilson was a founding senior executive of the Investment Department, and closely involved in managing the affairs of the late Albert Loewenstein as held by International Holdings and Hydro-Electric Securities.

The J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation (often known by its cable name of 'Schrobanco') commenced business in New York in October 1923. It was set up by the London partnership of J. Henry Schröder & Co. to bring their knowledge of commercial banking to the developing New York discount market. Its first president, Prentiss Gray (1884-1935) was a former grain shipper and had been director of the Commission for Relief in Belgium during the first world war. The board of directors included Baron Bruno Schröder (1867-1940) and Frank Tiarks (1874-1952), from the London partnership, and Manuel Rionda (1854-1943), a US based planter and importer of Cuban sugar.

In the 1920s the firm's core activity was dollar trade finance, but it also dealt in foreign exchange, securities underwriting, and participated in a number of foreign bond issues with a representative office in Berlin to market its services as an issuing house for German corporations. In 1924 it participated in the formation of the Continental Securities Corporation, an investment trust which the firm managed until its sale in 1937. The J. Henry Schroder Trust Company, renamed the Schroder Trust Company in 1937, was set up in 1929 to take deposits and manage investment accounts.

Following the Wall Street Crash in 1929, which left the firm almost entirely unscathed, its underwriting activities declined, but it developed a specialised foreign exchange business dealing in restricted currencies and also marketed US securities in Europe. Like the partnership in London, the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation was badly hit by the German 'Standstill' on the repayment of foreign debt in 1933, with over $12,000,000 frozen in Germany. Unlike J. Henry Schröder & Co. in London, the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation liquidated its holdings at a discount when this became possible.

Following Gray's death in a boating accident in 1935, Gerald Beal (1895-1971) took on the presidency until his retirement in 1962. He developed the firm as a specialist international banking firm, conducted at the Schroder family's request on a "prestigious and prudent" basis. From 1935 the firm established a presence in Latin America, entering into a joint venture, Argentaria SA de Finanzas, in Buenos Aires. In the same year Norbert Bodgan (c1904-1991) moved to the city to expand the firm's activities into Brazil, Colombia and elsewhere.

In 1936 the London partners and Avery Rockefeller (1903-1986) set up Schroder, Rockefeller & Co. Inc. This new company continued the underwriting and securities business that had been carried out by the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation prior to the separation of commercial and investment banking activities imposed by the Glass Steagall Act in 1933. Schroder, Rockefeller & Co. Inc. also became active in the field of venture capital.

Following the second world war the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation developed its international commercial banking services with clients, including central banks, in Latin America, Europe and Japan and the Pacific Basin. In 1959 the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation became part of Schroders Limited, a newly formed holding company in London, of which it constituted 73% of net assets.

The expansion of Eurodollar markets led to increasing business for J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation in Europe. In 1962 John Howell (1917-2014) succeeded Beal as president, who became chair of the board. In 1968 Schroders Inc. was created as a holding company for the three American Schroder entities: J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation, carrying out international banking for European, Latin American and Asian clients; Schroder Trust Company carrying out trust banking services for US clients; and Schroder Capital Corporation, previously Schroder, Rockefeller until the retirement of Avery Rockefeller in 1968, carrying out venture capital activities. In the same year Naess & Thomas, an investment manager was purchased and, as Schroder, Naess & Thomas, continued the investment management business previously conducted by Schroder Trust Company. Schroder, Naess & Thomas was renamed Schroder Capital Management Inc in 1980.

In 1970 James Wolfensohn (1933-2020) became president of J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation, succeeded in this role in 1974 by Mark Maged (1931- ), and chair of Schroders Inc. in 1974. Wolfensohn left the firm in 1977. John Bayley replaced him as chair, to be succeeded by John T. Connor (c1915-2000) in 1980.
In 1977 the J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation and the Schroder Trust Company were merged to become the J. Henry Schroder Bank and Trust Corporation.

In 1983 George Mallinckrodt (1930 - 2021 ) was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the bank, and president and chief executive officer of Schroders Inc, with the task of refocusing the business towards investment banking and investment management rather than commercial banking. Concluding that change within the US competitive and regulatory environment was made more difficult by the firm's ownership structure, a deal was made in 1985 with the Industrial Bank of Japan for the purchase of a 50.1% holding in the J. Henry Schroder Bank and Trust Corporation. The firm was renamed IBJ Schroder Bank & Trust Company on 1 January 1986. Conflicts of interest with Schroders Inc's remaining and expanding activities, notably its purchase of a 50% holding in the investment bank Wertheim & Co., led to the sale of most of the firm's holding in IBJ Schroder Bank & Trust Company by the end of 1986.