An accepting house was a primarily British institution which specialised in the acceptance and guarantee of bills of exchange thereby facilitating the lending of money. They took on other functions as the use of bills declined, returning to their original wider function of

merchant banking 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 commod ...

. The 'Accepting Houses' in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

had representation in Westminster by the Accepting Houses

Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

which ensured policy coordination between them, the UK Treasury and the Bank of England. Bills endorsed by members of the Committee were originally eligible for rediscount at the Bank of England, although this right was eventually extended to other banks in the UK and abroad. The term accepting house was more of an indication of status rather than function. Examples of UK accepting houses were

Hambros Bank Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...

Hill Samuel Hill Samuel is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group's Offshore Private Banking unit. It was formerly a leading British merchant bank and financial services firm before the takeover by TSB Group Plc. in 1987, which itself merged wi ...

Morgan Grenfell Morgan, Grenfell & Co. was a leading London-based investment bank regarded as one of the oldest and once most influential British merchant banks. It had its origins in a merchant banking business commenced by George Peabody. Junius Spencer Morgan ...

, Rothschild, J. Henry Schroder Wagg,

Arbuthnot Latham Arbuthnot Latham & Co is a private and merchant bank based near Moorgate in the City of London. It has the status of one of the 12 accepting houses. History Arbuthnot Latham was founded on 13 May 1833 by Alfred Latham and John A. Arbuthnot at 33 ...

, Seligman Brothers, William Brandts and S.G. Warburg. Most accepting houses were absorbed into larger banking entities during the 1980s and 1990s.

References

Banking in the United Kingdom {{Bank-stub