Midland Bank Plc was one of the
Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...
. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, England in August 1836. It expanded in the
Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...
, absorbing many local banks, and merged with the
Central Bank of London Ltd. in 1891, becoming the London City and Midland Bank.
After a period of nationwide expansion, including the acquisition of many smaller banks, the name Midland Bank Ltd was adopted in 1923. By 1934, it was the largest deposit bank in the world. It was listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
, and was once a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest marke ...
, but in June 1992, it was taken over by
HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...
, which phased out the Midland Bank name by June 1999 in favour of HSBC Bank.
On 10 June 2015, HSBC announced that it would be rebranding its branches in the United Kingdom. HSBC chairman Douglas Flint described the Midland brand as "odds on favourite" for a return to the high street. In September 2015, it was announced that the Midland Bank name would not be revived, and the branch network in the United Kingdom would be branded "HSBC UK".
History
Early history
Midland Bank was founded by
Charles Geach
Charles Geach (1808 – 1 November 1854) was a prominent English businessman, industrialist, banker and politician of the early to mid-19th century, strongly associated with banking and manufacturing interests. He was a co-founder and the general ...
, its first manager in Union Street,
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, England, in August 1836. Geach had formerly worked at the
Bank of England
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government o ...
; he secured the business support and capital backing of leading merchants and manufacturers in Birmingham.
[HSBC Group in Europe]
In the 1830s and 1840s, Midland offered discounted bills of exchange for customers.
[ By the 1850s the bank's customers included railways, iron founders and engineering concerns, utilities and municipal corporations.]
Midland acquired Stourbridge
Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The ...
Old Bank in 1851 and Nichols, Baker and Crane of Bewdley in 1862.[
]
Acquisitions and development in its first 50 years
From the 1880s, it expanded its customer base by opening new branches and acquiring other banks. In 1891 it acquired the Central Bank of London (which gave Midland a seat in the London Bankers' Clearing House, in 1898 it bought the City Bank[ (which provided a ]London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
head office) and, in 1914, it acquired the Birmingham Banking Company.
By 1918, with deposits of £335 million, it ranked as the largest bank in the world. Edward Hopkinson Holden led the bank at this time first as Managing Director from 1898 to 1908 and then as Chairman and Managing Director from 1908 until his death in 1919. He oversaw more than twenty bank amalgamations between 1891 and 1918, and opened new branches throughout England and Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
.[
Holden also expanded overseas; it was the first British bank to set up a foreign exchange department and, by 1919, it was acting as London bank to some 650 correspondent banks throughout the world. From 1907, these correspondents included The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.][
After the ]First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the leading British banks entered an agreement with the government that they would not attempt further amalgamations without Treasury approval. As a result, Midland turned its attention to expanding its branch network, adding new banking services, mechanising its systems (from 1928) and advertising its activities.[
]
Post war recovery and international alliances
Midland responded to the ending of credit restrictions in 1958, by extending its branch network and by introducing a series of innovative services, including personal loans (1958), personal cheque accounts (1958) and cheque cards (1966).[ In 1958, it acquired Forward Trust, which became a leader in installment finance, leasing and factoring services.][
In 1967, Midland acquired a share in Montagu Trust, the owner of Samuel Montagu & Co., and thereby became the first British clearing bank to own a London ]merchant bank
A merchant bank is historically a bank dealing in commercial loans and investment. In modern British usage it is the same as an investment bank. Merchant banks were the first modern banks and evolved from medieval merchants who traded in commodi ...
. Samuel Montagu, with its own history dating back to 1853, became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1974, and is now part of HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tr ...
's private banking business.[
Through the acquisition of Samuel Montagu & Co, Midland also gained a majority share in Guyerzeller Bank AG (now ]HSBC Guyerzeller Bank
HSBC Guyerzeller Bank AG, a member of the HSBC Group, was a Swiss private bank advising individuals and families in all matters of wealth management, investment advice and trust services. Its head office was in Zurich, and it had two branches in G ...
) in Switzerland.[ Further diversification followed in 1972, when Midland was the leading member of the consortium that acquired the Thomas Cook travel business. After becoming sole owner in 1977, Midland sold its interest in 1992.][
In 1974, Midland began to open branches or representative offices in overseas countries and to acquire other international banks. The largest of these was the purchase of a majority share in Crocker National of ]California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, United States: this was not a success and Midland was forced to take full ownership in 1985 so that it could sell it to Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
the following year.[
In 1980, Midland acquired a controlling interest in Trinkaus & Burkhardt ]KGaA
A limited partnership (LP) is a form of partnership similar to a general partnership except that while a general partnership must have at least two general partners (GPs), a limited partnership must have at least one GP and at least one limited ...
, a private bank in Germany with a long history of its own, today HSBC Trinkaus
HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG, operating as HSBC Deutschland, is a German financial services company. It traces its history back to 1785 and is one of the longest-established members of the HSBC Group. HSBC in Germany has operations in private, co ...
.
In 1984, in a bid to grab market share Midland scrapped current account charges. It was so successful that all other banks in the United Kingdom had to quickly follow and offer the same or risk losing their customers. The country has had free banking ever since.
Midland joins the HSBC Group
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation acquired a 14.9% equity interest in Midland Bank in 1987, and a strong working relationship developed. In October 1989, First Direct was established and was at the forefront of telephone banking, with person to person service available twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year.[
In June 1992, HSBC Holdings plc acquired full ownership of Midland Bank. At the time, it was one of the largest acquisitions in banking history, and gave HSBC a major foothold in ]Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, which it needed to complement its existing business in Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...
and the Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
, when it had to move its Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...
based headquarters to London on 1 January 1993, accepting primary banking supervision by the Bank of England.
Midland Bank was renamed HSBC Bank HSBC Bank may refer to any one of the following principal local banks or divisions of the HSBC Group:
Asia-Pacific
* HSBC (Hong Kong)
** PayMe, its local payment service
* HSBC Bank (China)
* HSBC Bank Australia
* HSBC Bank India
* HSBC Bank Mala ...
in June 1999, as part of the adoption of the HSBC brand throughout the Group.[
The last head office of the Midland Bank, opposite the Bank of England in ]Poultry
Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...
and Princes Street, was sold in October 2006 to a tycoon from Russia, with HSBC vacating the banking hall on the ground floor and huge underground deposit vaults in 2007. In 2012 the ground floor was used in the Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
game show The Bank Job
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
. The architect John Alfred Gotch
John Alfred Gotch (28 September 1852, Kettering, Northamptonshire – 17 January 1942, Kettering, Northamptonshire) was a noted English architect and architectural historian. His brother was the Pre-Raphaelite painter and illustrator Thomas Co ...
designed the building, with assistance from Sir Edwin Lutyens.
Built between 1921 and 1939, and symbol of the 1930s pride of the biggest bank in the world, the building is now The Ned Hotel City of London.
Until around 2020, the HSBC UK SWIFT code (all offices in the United Kingdom) remained ''MIDLGB22'', reflecting its past as the Midland Bank.
Branding
The Midland Bank was famous for its golden griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon ( Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and ...
logo, surrounded by golden coins originally introduced in 1965 on a black, then later blue background, and for its slogan "the listening bank," written by the advertising executive Rod Allen. Advertisements for the bank appeared in the popular computer game ''Theme Park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
''. An animated friendly version of the Griffin fronted the bank's television advertising during the 1980s.
The Midland Bank still traded as Midland Bank, but using the HSBC logo from 1997, and was finally rebranded as HSBC Bank HSBC Bank may refer to any one of the following principal local banks or divisions of the HSBC Group:
Asia-Pacific
* HSBC (Hong Kong)
** PayMe, its local payment service
* HSBC Bank (China)
* HSBC Bank Australia
* HSBC Bank India
* HSBC Bank Mala ...
in June 1999, as part of the adoption of the HSBC brand throughout the group. However, a dormant subsidiary, Midland Bank (Branch Nominees) Limited, continues to be registered at Companies House.
File:Midland bank.svg, First "griffin" logo, used from 1957-1988
File:Midland-Bank-Logo-1989.png, Second "griffin" logo used from 1988-1997
File:Midland-Bank-Logo-1997.png, Final logo used from 1997-1999 (HSBC logo with "Midland Bank" name)
References
External links
Archived website
ref>
*
{{Authority control
1836 establishments in England
1999 disestablishments in England
Banks established in 1836
Banks disestablished in 1999
Defunct companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands
Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange
Defunct banks of the United Kingdom
History of Birmingham, West Midlands
HSBC acquisitions
British companies disestablished in 1999
British companies established in 1836
1990 mergers and acquisitions