Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Nature of Clearing Bank Regulation

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Regulation of the London Clearing Banks, 1946–1971

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

  • 203 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter describes and explores the nature of clearing bank regulation in the period from 1946 until the early 1970s. For analytical purposes, it classifies regulation as taking the form of codified regulation, normally in the form of primary legislation; extra-legal regulation (that is, non-statutory regulation, or “soft law”); and self-regulation. It begins by briefly summarizing the legal framework within which the clearing banks operated. It then explores the non-statutory ways in which the banks were regulated, including ratio requirements, deposits schemes, quantitative and qualitative guidance on lending, the provision of information and moral suasion. It also considers the constraints over the activities of the clearing banks which regulated them indirectly. It closes by considering the self-regulatory aspects of clearing bank regulation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

Primary Sources: Unpublished

  • Bank of England Archive

    Google Scholar 

  • 6A127/1: Economic Intelligence Department: Hire Purchase

    Google Scholar 

  • 8A180/1: Committee of London Clearing Bankers (CLCB) Chief Executive Officers—Minutes of Monthly Meetings

    Google Scholar 

  • C40/1325: Cashier’s Department: Chief Cashier’s Policy Files: Banking and Banking Practice: Interest Rates and Charges

    Google Scholar 

  • EID4/161: Economic Intelligence Department: Records of Home Finance: Financial Institutions Other Than Banks—Control of Other Financial Institutions

    Google Scholar 

  • G15/102: Secretary’s Files: Committee of London Clearing Banks (CLCB), British Bankers’ Association (BBA), Committee of Scottish Clearing Banks

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyds Banking Group Archive

    Google Scholar 

  • HO/D/Boa/Age/17

    Google Scholar 

  • HO/D/Boa/Age/41–44

    Google Scholar 

  • HO/D/Boa/Age/46–48

    Google Scholar 

  • HO/S/Rep/8–19

    Google Scholar 

  • London Metropolitan Archives

    Google Scholar 

  • MS32037: Committee of London Clearing Bankers and Chief Executive Officers’ Committee Minutes (2/7a and 2/7/1)

    Google Scholar 

  • MS32193: Statistics C/B Monthly Statements of Weekly Balances of Clearing Banks

    Google Scholar 

  • MS32259: Credit Restriction—Banks and HM Government

    Google Scholar 

  • MS34844: General Correspondence, Mainly with Banks

    Google Scholar 

  • London School of Economics and Political Science Library, Archives and Special Collections

    Google Scholar 

  • Piercy 9 (9/73, 9/80, 9/83)

    Google Scholar 

  • The National Archives

    Google Scholar 

  • IR40/16307: Recognition of Banks, s. 200 Income Tax Act 1952

    Google Scholar 

  • T233/2082: Monthly Exchequer and Monetary Figures including Clearing Banks’ Monthly Statement Analysis

    Google Scholar 

  • T326/652: Financial Control of Overseas Banks and Accepting Houses in the UK, 1964–1967

    Google Scholar 

  • T326/793: Financial Control of Overseas Banks and Accepting Houses in the UK, 1967–1968

    Google Scholar 

  • T358/214: Working Party on Control and Supervision of the Banking Sector

    Google Scholar 

  • T386/183: Banks’ Reserve Ratio and Eligible Liabilities and the Monthly Statement of the London Clearing Banks

    Google Scholar 

Primary Sources: Published

  • Books and Pamphlets

    Google Scholar 

  • The Bankers’ Almanac and Year Book for 1945–1946. London: Thomas Skinner & Co (Publishers) Ltd., 1945–1946.

    Google Scholar 

  • Competition and Credit Control. Bank of England, May 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Command Papers

    Google Scholar 

  • Capital Issues Control: Memorandum of Guidance to the Capital Issues Committee, Cmd. 6645, May 1945.

    Google Scholar 

  • Board of Trade, Report of the Committee on Company Law Amendment, Cmd. 6659, June 1945.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capital Issues Control: Special Memorandum to the Capital Issues Committee, Cmd. 7281, December 1947.

    Google Scholar 

  • Committee on the Working of the Monetary System, Report, Cmnd. 827, August 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  • Board of Trade, Report of the Company Law Committee, Cmnd. 1749, June 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Licensing and Supervision of Deposit-Taking Institutions, Cmnd. 6584, August 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions, Report, Cmnd. 7937, June 1980.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newspapers and Magazines

    Google Scholar 

  • Financial Times

    Google Scholar 

  • Times

    Google Scholar 

  • Television Programmes

    Google Scholar 

  • British Film Institute Reuben Library: Film and Television Works Collection

    Google Scholar 

Secondary Sources

  • Books and Articles

    Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, Kenneth W., and Duncan Snidal. “Hard and Soft Law in International Governance.” International Organisation 54, no. 3 (Summer 2000): 421–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ackrill, Margaret, and Leslie Hannah. Barclays: The Business of Banking 1690–1996. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arch, Linda. “Disposed Towards Self-Restraint: The London Clearing Banks, 1946–71.” In The Challenges of Capitalism for Virtue Ethics and the Common Good: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Kleio Akrivou and Alejo José G. Sison, 75–89. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2016.

    Google Scholar 

  • Attard, Bernard. “Moral Suasion, Empire Borrowers and the New Issue Market During the 1920s.” In The British Government and the City of London in the Twentieth Century, edited by Ranald Michie and Philip Williamson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Black, Julia. “Decentring Regulation: Understanding the Role of Regulation and Self-Regulation in a ‘Post-regulatory’ World.” Current Legal Problems 54, no. 1 (2001): 103–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boulding, Kenneth E. The Legitimacy of Central Banks: Steering Committee for the Fundamental Reappraisal of the Discount Mechanism Appointed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1969. Accessed 23 August 2018. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/historical/federal%20reserve%20history/discountmech/legcent_boulding.pdf.

  • Busch, Andreas. “National Filters: Europeanisation, Institutions, and Discourse in the Case of Banking Regulation.” West European Politics 27, no. 2 (2004): 310–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Capie, Forrest. The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clay, Henry. Lord Norman. London: Macmillan, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • The Committee of London Clearing Bankers. The London Clearing Banks: Evidence by the Committee of London Clearing Bankers to the Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions, November 1977. London: Longman Group Limited, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coopey, Richard. “The First Venture Capitalist: Financing Development in Britain After 1945, the Case of ICFC/3i.” Business and Economic History 23, no. 1 (1994): 262–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Glyn. A History of Money. 3rd ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2002. Reprint, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, Aubrey L. “Protection of Depositors Act, 1963.” The Modern Law Review 26, no. 6 (November 1963): 680–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dow, J. R. C. The Management of the British Economy, 1945–60. London: Cambridge University Press, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, John, Philip Molyneux, John O. S. Wilson, and Manouche Tavakoli. “European Banking: An Overview.” Journal of Banking & Finance 31, no. 7 (2007). Accessed 20 July 2018. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378426607000076?via%3Dihub: 1911–35.

  • Goodhart, C. A. E. “Competition and Credit Control.” Special Paper 229, LSE Financial Markets Group Special Paper Series (March 2014).

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodhart, C. A. E. “Competition and Credit Control: Some Personal Reflections.” Financial History Review 22, no. 2 (2015): 235–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kynaston, David. The City of London. Volume IV: A Club No More, 1945–2000. London: Pimlico, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, Douglass C. “Institutions.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 5, no. 1 (Winter 1991): 97–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogus, Anthony. Regulation: Legal Form and Economic Theory. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orbach, Barak. “What Is Regulation?” Yale Journal on Regulation Online 30, no. 1 (2012). Accessed 20 July 2018. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2143385##.

  • Pember and Boyle. British Government Securities in the Twentieth Century: The First Fifty Years, Supplement 1976. London: Pember and Boyle, 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, Victoria. “The Genesis of Regulation.” Financial Stability Review, no. 3 (Autumn 1997). Accessed 13 July 2018. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/financial-stability-report/1997/autumn-1997.

  • Sayers, R. S. Central Banking After Bagehot. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schooner, Heidi Mandanis, and Michael Taylor. “Convergence and Competition: The Case of Bank Regulation in Britain and the United States.” Michigan Journal of International Law 20, no. 4 (Summer 1999): 595–656.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selznick, Philip. “Focusing Organisational Research on Regulation.” In Regulatory Policy and the Social Sciences, edited by Roger G. Noll, 363–67. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, John. Banking in Crisis: The Rise and Fall of British Banking Stability, 1800 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winton, J. R. Lloyds Bank, 1918–1969. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Linda Arch

Authors
  1. Linda Arch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Linda Arch .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Arch, L. (2018). The Nature of Clearing Bank Regulation. In: The Regulation of the London Clearing Banks, 1946–1971. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00910-6_2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00910-6_2

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-00909-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-00910-6

  • eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation