Evidence on competition in English commercial banking, 1920-1970

Financial History Review

Volumn 11, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 69-103

  Capie, Forrest ^a   Billings, Mark ^b,c  

^a CITY UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^c SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 3042527349     PISSN: 09685650     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0968565004000058     Document Type: Review

References (70)

1. This article is based on a research project ('Banks and Industrial Finance 1920-71') financed by the ESRC, whose financial support we gratefully acknowledge (Award number R000236447 - co-investigators Professor Michael Collins and Dr Duncan Ross). We thank the archivists of the major banks - Jessie Campbell (Barclays), Dr John Booker (formerly of Lloyds TSB), Edwin Green (HSBC) and Fiona Maccoll (formerly of National Westminster); and also Bob Berry, David Goacher, Shelagh Heffernan, Steve Toms and John Wilson for helpful comments on an earlier version.
2. F. H. Capie and G. Rodrik-Bali, 'Concentration in British banking 1870-1920', Business History, 24. 3 (1982).
3. D. Cruickshank, Competition in UK Banking: a Report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Norwich, 2000), p. vii.
4. F. H. Capie and M. Billings, 'Accounting issues and the measurement of profits - English banks 1920-68', Accounting, Business & Financial History, 11.2 (2001), pp. 227-8.
5. F. H. Capie and M. Billings, 'Profitability in English banking in the twentieth century', European Review of Economic History, 5.3 (2001), p. 376.
6. M. Ackrill and L. Hannah, Barclays: the Business of Banking 1690-1996 (Cambridge, 2001), Table 3.1, p. 154.
7. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 64, 91, 109, A. R. Holmes and E. Green, Midland: 150 Years of Banking Business (London, 1986), pp. 216, 223, 247.
8. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 64, 91, 109, A. R. Holmes and E. Green, Midland: 150 Years of Banking Business (London, 1986), pp. 216, 223, 247.
9. G. Jones, 'Competition and competitiveness in British Banking 1918-1971' in G. Jones and M.W. Kirby (eds.), Competitiveness and the State: Government and Business in Twentieth Century Britain (Manchester, 1991), pp. 121-2.
10. For example, C. Fohlin, Banking Industry Structure, Competition, and Performance: Does Universality Matter? California Institute of Technology, Social Science Working Paper 1078 (Pasadena, 2000).
11. F. H. Capie and A. Webber, A Monetary History of the United Kingdom, 1870-1982, vol. 1: Data, Sources, Methods (London, 1985), Appendix 11, pp. 539-75 show new entrants, mergers, etc. of banks operating during the period.
12. Lloyds Bank, Annual Report and Accounts, 1922, Chairman's Statement.
13. Bank of England, London, Archive [henceforth BoEA], G14/71, extract from minutes of the Bank's Committee of Treasury dated 30 Oct. 1935.
14. L. S. Pressnell, 'Cartels and competition in British banking: a background study', Banco Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, 95 (1970), p. 385.
15. Pressnell, 'Cartels and competition', p. 386.
16. Y. Cassis, City Bankers, 1890-1914 (Cambridge, 1994) represents the fullest attempt to chart such linkages, although dealing with the period immediately before that to which this paper relates.
17. BoEA, C40/55.
18. Pressnell, 'Cartels and competition', p.386.
19. National Board for Prices and Incomes, Report No. 34 on Bank Charges (London, 1967) [henceforth NBPI], para. 153, quoted in B. Griffiths, Competition in Banking, Hobart Paper 51 (London, 1970), p.33.
20. National Board for Prices and Incomes, Report No. 34 on Bank Charges (London, 1967) [henceforth NBPI], para. 153, quoted in B. Griffiths, Competition in Banking, Hobart Paper 51 (London, 1970), p.33.
21. See W. J. Baumol, The Free-market Innovation Machine (Princeton, 2002).
22. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 96, 141-2.
23. Capie and Billings, 'Profitability in English banking', pp. 392-5. Capie and Billings, 'Accounting issues' discusses the methods used and many issues surrounding the calculations of profits and rates of return.
24. Capie and Billings, 'Profitability in English banking', pp. 392-5. Capie and Billings, 'Accounting issues' discusses the methods used and many issues surrounding the calculations of profits and rates of return.
25. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, Table B8, pp. 437-9.
26. F. H. Capie and M. Billings, 'Efficiency in English banking 1920-70', mimeo (2002).
27. P. Wardley, 'The commercial banking industry and its part in the emergence and consolidation of the corporate economy in Britain before 1940', Journal of Industrial History, 3.2 (2000).
28. Monopolies Commission, Barclays Bank Ltd., Lloyds Bank Ltd., and Martins Bank Ltd.: A Report on the Proposed Merger, House of Commons Papers 319, Vol. 26, Parliamentary Papers, 1967-68 (London, 1968) [henceforth Monopolies Commission], para. 219.
29. For example, BoEA, C40/55, /56 and /57, and G14/149.
30. J. R. Winton, Lloyds Bank 1918-1969 (Oxford, 1982), pp. 31-2 and National Provincial Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, London, Archive [henceforth NPBA], Call No. 2749, note 'Interest on Deposit Accounts' dated 13 Jan. 1958.
31. Winton, Lloyds Bank, p. 96.
32. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, p. 139 and J. Grady and M. Weale, British Banking 1960-85 (Basingstoke and London, 1986), pp. 71-2, respectively.
33. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, p. 139 and J. Grady and M. Weale, British Banking 1960-85 (Basingstoke and London, 1986), pp. 71-2, respectively.
34. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, p. 141. See also J. Fforde, The Bank of England and Public Policy 1941-58 (Cambridge, 1992), p. 409.
35. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, p. 141. See also J. Fforde, The Bank of England and Public Policy 1941-58 (Cambridge, 1992), p. 409.
36. NPBA, Call No. 2749, note on 'Competition Between Banks' prepared for 'Radcliffe Sub-Committee'.
37. M. Collins, Money and Banking in the UK: a History (London, 1988), pp. 253-5.
38. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 140-1 and Winton, Lloyds Bank, p.176.
39. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 140-1 and Winton, Lloyds Bank, p.176.
40. Capie and Webber, A Monetary History, pp. 494-5.
41. Pressnell, 'Cartels and competition', p. 389.
42. For example, W. A. Thomas, The Finance of British Industry 1918-1976 (London, 1978), p.199 and Winton, Lloyds Bank, figures 8 and 10, p.146 and p.177 respectively. Also reflected in an unpublished study by the banks based on lending statistics collected for official purposes by the British Bankers' Association - 'Report of Study Group on the Course of Bank Advances' (1957), Midland Bank, HSBC Group, London, Archive, Ace 314/4 and NPBA, Call No. 2749. Fforde, Bank of England gives the story in considerable detail up to 1958 from the authorities' point of view.
43. For example, W. A. Thomas, The Finance of British Industry 1918-1976 (London, 1978), p.199 and Winton, Lloyds Bank, figures 8 and 10, p.146 and p.177 respectively. Also reflected in an unpublished study by the banks based on lending statistics collected for official purposes by the British Bankers' Association - 'Report of Study Group on the Course of Bank Advances' (1957), Midland Bank, HSBC Group, London, Archive, Ace 314/4 and NPBA, Call No. 2749. Fforde, Bank of England gives the story in considerable detail up to 1958 from the authorities' point of view.
44. For example, W. A. Thomas, The Finance of British Industry 1918-1976 (London, 1978), p.199 and Winton, Lloyds Bank, figures 8 and 10, p.146 and p.177 respectively. Also reflected in an unpublished study by the banks based on lending statistics collected for official purposes by the British Bankers' Association - 'Report of Study Group on the Course of Bank Advances' (1957), Midland Bank, HSBC Group, London, Archive, Ace 314/4 and NPBA, Call No. 2749. Fforde, Bank of England gives the story in considerable detail up to 1958 from the authorities' point of view.
45. Westminster Bank, Annual Report and Accounts, 1953, Chairman's Statement.
46. The Appendix in Jones, 'Competition and competitiveness', based on Fforde, Bank of England, provides evidence of the growth of the deposits of non-clearing banks and building societies.
47. J. Maycock, 'Monetary policy and the clearing banks', pp. 160-88 in D. R. Croome and H. G. Johnson (eds.), Money in Britain 1959-1969 (London, 1970), p. 176.
48. Grady and Weale, British Banking, pp. 171-2.
49. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 136-8, 154.
50. Pressnell, 'Cartels and competition', p. 374.
51. Monopolies Commission, Appendix 6, p. 69.
52. Collins, Money and Banking in the UK, pp. 80, 414-15.
53. Jones, 'Competition and competitiveness', pp. 126-7.
54. Cruickshank, Competition in UK Banking, p. iv.
55. BoEA, G14/71, note of the Bank's views dated 31 Oct. 1966 sent by the Chief Cashier (Leslie O'Brien, later Governor) to Sir William Armstrong under cover of letter of 9 Nov. 1966.
56. 4/113.
57. BoEA, G14/71, letter dated 16 June 1966.
58. Public Record Office, Kew, London [henceforth PRO], EW8/493 - a lengthy and fascinating file containing correspondence between the Department of Economic Affairs, the Board of Trade, the Treasury, and the Prime Minister's private office, including notes of meetings between civil servants, ministers, representatives of the banks and the Bank of England.
59. BoEA, G14/71, summary of and commentary on NBPI Report compiled by Economic Intelligence Department dated 23 May 1967.
60. NBPI, para. 154.
61. Winton, Lloyds Bank, p.195. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 171-83 give a detailed account of Barclays' role in this process.
62. Winton, Lloyds Bank, p.195. Ackrill and Hannah, Barclays, pp. 171-83 give a detailed account of Barclays' role in this process.
63. For example, Economist, 3 Feb. 1968, p. 51.
64. See R. S. Sayers, The Bank of England 1891-1944 (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 235-52.
65. PRO, T160/711/F6070.
66. Monopolies Commission, para. 218.
67. Thomas, Finance of British Industry, p. 55.
68. Monopolies Commission, para. 52.
69. Economist, 3 Feb. 1968, pp. 51-2.
70. Maycock, 'Monetary policy and the clearing banks', p. 171.