Bank of Liverpool - Creation of A Regional Bank

Creation of A Regional Bank

Once the Bank had established itself as the leading bank in Liverpool, it began a series of acquisitions that was to take it into the regions, before eventually establishing a London presence in 1918 with the acquisition of Martins Bank. Each of the acquired banks was itself the product of its own local amalgamations.

1893 The Kendal Bank. Two Kendal banks were formed in 1788, namely Wakefield’s Bank and Joseph Maude’s Kendal Bank, which amalgamated in 1840, later acquiring other local banks. By 1893 the Kendal Bank had 11 full branches and 15 sub-branches in Westmoreland and Cumberland.

1906 The Craven Bank was founded in the Craven district of Yorkshire in 1791 by long-standing local families. At the time of its acquisition its head office was at Skipton and there were 14 branches, taking the Bank of Liverpool’s total to 71.

1911 The Carlisle and Cumberland Bank was formed in 1836, Carlisle being “entirely destitute of a native joint stock bank establishment”. By the turn of the century it was having difficulty competing with the larger banks and sought a merger.

1914-18 The North Eastern Banking Company was, east of the Pennines, the equivalent of Bank of Liverpool to the west. North Eastern was a later creation, the prospectus for the joint stock bank being issued in 1872. The two principal offices were in Newcastle upon Tyne and Middlesbrough; the leading shareholder Sir Andrew Noble; managing director Benjamin Noble; and Glyn’s Bank supplied the company secretary. Branch opening was immediately accelerated by the purchase of the Alnwick and County Bank in 1875 taking the total number of branches to 24. The second and last bank to be acquired by the North Eastern was Dale, Young and Company in 1892. Dale and Company had been founded by John Brodrick Dale, already an experienced banker, in 1858 and he remained senior partner until his Bank’s acquisition. Succession issues at the North Eastern led to its management approaching the Bank of Liverpool with a view to merging. The choices for both banks were either to join up with a London bank or to merge, creating a bank strong enough to move into London in its own right. In 1914 the two banks agreed the merger (although, in practice, it was a takeover by Liverpool) and formed the largest English bank with its head office outside London; the North Eastern, headquartered in Newcastle, brought with it 72 branches and 27 sub-branches. Although the merger was agreed in 1914, the onset of war meant it was not effected until 1918.