Growing Concentration of Banking

The scan: The Week v4 no21.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

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Three banks together controlling assets of more than £650m. mainly in Scotland and “rcland announced last week that they are having talks "with a view to forming a strong and close association," They are the National Commercial Bank of Scotland, in which Lloyds Bank has a 36.6 per cente shareholding, the Bank of ireland, the biggest bank in the Republic, and the National Bank, which owns 254 branches and sub-ffices, chiefly in the Republic. The National, after announcing the talks, said that “shareholders will be advised immediately any frm proposals can be presented to them for their consideration," But a statement by the National Commercial made it plain that there was no question “of a merger as such between the three banks," Officials of all three banks said they could not elaborate on the statements that had been made.s A spokesman for the National said that a full statement could be expected within a month. The National Commercial is easily the biggest of the three banks, with assets of £323m. and 453 branches, all but seven of which are in Scotland. A link with the other two banks would have an obvious advantage of giving the National Commercial its first foothold in Ireland. The National is one of the 11 London clearing banks, but its business is concentrated in the Republic Of Ireland where it has 215 branches and sub-offices. It was established in 1835 and has assets of £153m. An association with the other two banks would not only spread the National's interests, but it would strengthen the bank's position in Ireland against competition from the "Big Five" which now looks like building up. This would also apply to the Bank of Ireland, which has 160 branches in the Republic and employs assets of around £174m. Established by Royal Charter in 1783, this is the only Irish bank whose shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchanges This is just one aspect of the growing concentration of British banking, An indication of just how far the process has gone was given in a chart published in a recent issue of The Economist.