District Bank

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the subsidiary of National Provincial Bank. For the present-day institution, see National Westminster Bank.

District Bank was a British commercial bank which operated in England and Wales from 1829 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank in 1970. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company

The District Bank was first established in 1829 in Manchester as the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company, with a starting nominal capital of £3 million. The company planned to create a banking network for northwest England by opening new branches and acquiring smaller banks, and within five years had opened 17 branches.[1]

By 1840, however, District Bank was forced to write off over £500,000 in bad debts — a huge sum at the time — due to management misjudgment, slowing the firm's acquisitions and expansion for the next few years. In addition, the bank was closely associated with England's textile industry; the company suffered during the cotton famine of the 1860s caused by the north's blockade of southern ports during the American Civil War. Judicious acquisitions, however, helped District Bank to weather this particular storm.

At the beginning of 1885, District Bank, recovered from its previous losses, opened an office in London. As customer deposits increased and astute commercial credit policies and management were put to work, the bank began a moderate expansion program that lasted until the outbreak of World War I. After a five-year hiatus, the company was caught up in the postwar boom and opened 130 new branches between 1919 and 1924. In 1924 the bank officially changed its name to District Bank Limited, a title by which it had long been known.

Relatively unscathed by the worldwide Great Depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s, the bank continued its expansion program, and immediately after World War II decided to create a network of branches throughout the country. In 1935 District Bank merged with the County Bank, a Manchester-based entity, increasing its paid-up capital to almost £3 million and kicking off its nationwide expansion. In 1936 District Bank was admitted to the London clearing house, becoming the seventh largest member by the 1950s. This strong-growth strategy continued unabated up to and following World War II until the acquisition of the District Bank by National Provincial Bank in 1962, creating a company with over £1.4 billion in assets and 2,100 branches, although the two banks maintained their separate identities and independent operations.[2]

[edit] National Provincial Bank

In 1968 National Provincial announced its merger with the Westminster Bank.[3] The District Bank, National Provincial, and Westminster Bank were fully integrated in the new firm's structure, while Coutts & Co. private bankers, Ulster Bank (a 1917 Westminster acquisition), and the Isle of Man Bank continued as separate operations. Duncan Stirling, chairman of Westminster Bank, became first chairman of the fifth largest bank in the world. In 1969 David Robarts, former chairman of National Provincial, assumed Stirling's position. The statutory process of integration was completed in 1969 and the new company, National Westminster Bank Limited, opened its doors for business on 01 January 1970.[4] NatWest, as it became known, is now part of the The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

[edit] References

  1. ^ District Bank The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Past Constituents (retrieved 19 November 2007)
  2. ^ National Provincial Bank The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Past Constituents (retrieved 19 November 2007)
  3. ^ Westminster Bank The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Past Constituents (retrieved 19 November 2007)
  4. ^ A short history of National Westminster Bank The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 2005

[edit] Bibliography

  • Ashby, J. F. The Story of the Banks Hutchinson & Co., London, 1934
  • Reed, Richard National Westminster Bank: A Short History National Westminster Bank, London, 1989