This substantially expanded new edition of the Guide to the Historical Records of British Banking contains details of over 700 archive collections held in local record offices, university and local libraries and of course, banks. This monumental reference work facilitates a wider knowledge and understanding of the history of British finance.

A full account of the rise and fall of British banking stability which sheds new light on why banking systems crash.

The Global Financial Crisis made its first appearance in Britain towards the end of 2007 with the failure of the Northern Rock Bank. It then reached an unparalleled intensity a year later when the government was forced to intervene to prevent the collapse of Lloyds/HBOS and RBS/Natwest. Before these events the British banking system possessed a long established reputation for resilience and competence that made it one of the most admired and trusted in the world. The financial crisis of 2007/8, and the subsequent revelations about the behaviour of bankers, destroyed that reputation and drove a desire for a complete reform of the British banking system. Forgotten in this headlong rush towards radical restructuring were the reasons why the British banking system had become so admired and trusted. The aim of this book is to explain why the British banking system gained its reputation for resilience and competence, maintained it for over 100 years, and then lost it in such a rapid and spectacular fashion. To achieve that aim requires a study of the entire banking system. Banks are key components of a complex financial system continually interacting with each other, and constantly changing over time, This makes the conventional distinctions drawn between different types of banks, including those specialising in international finance, savings and loans, corporate lending, and retail deposits and borrowing, inappropriate for any long-term analysis. The distinctions between different types of banks were neither absolute nor permanent but relative and temporary. Banks were also central to both the payments system and the money market without which no modern economy could function. What this book is about is the development of the British banking system as a whole over more than three centuries. Only with such an understanding is it possible to appreciate what the British banking system achieved and then maintained from the middle of the 19th century onwards, why it was lost in such a short space of time, and what needs to be done to return it to the position it once occupied. Without such an understanding the mistakes of the recent past are destined to be repeated time and gain.

Analyses the emergence, growth and performance from the 1830s to the present

This substantially expanded new edition of the Guide to the Historical Records of British Banking contains details of over 700 archive collections held in local record offices, university and local libraries and of course, banks. Wider coverage is given to the records of major domestic banks, British-owned overseas banks, merchant banks and discount houses. There are also additional listings of records of long defunct banks. Arranged alphabetically by name, the entries for each bank contain in most cases: · A brief history of the bank to explain numerous name changes. · Information as to where the bank's records are held. · Details of what the records consist of. The entries are set in context by introductory chapters covering the historical structure and function of British banking and the purpose, format and research value of the chief series of historical records commonly found in bank archives. Bank records concern not just banks but the varied activities that they financed. In addition to its contribution to the study of banking history, this monumental reference work facilitates a wider knowledge and understanding of the history of British finance.

John R. Weeks based his study on long-term observations made at the British Armstrong Bank in the UK. Not one person, from the CEOs to the junior clerks had anything good to say about its corporate culture, yet the way things were done never seemed to alter.