National Provincial Bank was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 retail bank which operated in England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 from 1833 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank

National Westminster Bank

National Westminster Bank Plc, commonly known as NatWest, is the largest retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom and has been part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc since 2000. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is ranked as the second largest bank in the world by assets...

 in 1970; it remains a registered company but is dormant. Considered one of the Big Five, it expanded during the 19th and 20th centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies.

National Provincial Bank of England

The National Provincial Bank was organised as a joint-stock company by Thomas Joplin in 1833. At the time, the Bank of England

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, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

 had exclusive statutory power to issue banknotes within a 65 miles (104.6 km) radius of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. Although the bank's administrative offices were in London, it decided to open its branches outside the 65 mile radius so that the bank could issue its own notes. From the beginning National Provincial lived up to its name, serving provincial customers throughout England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The bank was without a national competitor for about 60 years. By 1836 it had over 20 branches across England and Wales.

The first branch of the bank was opened on 1 January 1834 in Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

. Like the District Bank

District Bank

District Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1829 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank in 1970; it remains a registered company but is dormant...

, the company planned to establish new branches and acquire smaller banks, and by 1835 it had opened 20 new offices. The bank's expansion continued throughout the 19th century with new branch openings and by taking over smaller local banking companies:

Date	Acquisition	Established
1834	Rotton & Co., Birmingham Birmingham Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...	1806
1835	Bloxsome & Player, Durham Durham Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...	1813
1835	Bristol City Bank	branch of Northern & Central Bank
1836	Vye & Harris, Ilfracombe Ilfracombe Ilfracombe is a seaside resort and civil parish on the North Devon coast, England with a small harbour, surrounded by cliffs.The parish stretches along the coast from 'The Coastguard Cottages' in Hele Bay toward the east and 4 miles along The Torrs to Lee Bay toward the west...	1807
1836	William Skinner & Co., Stockton Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...	1815
1836	Pyke, Law & Co., Barnstaple Barnstaple Barnstaple is a town and civil parish in the local government district of North Devon in the county of Devon, England, UK. It lies west southwest of Bristol, north of Plymouth and northwest of the county town of Exeter. The old spelling Barnstable is now obsolete.It is the main town of the...	1807
1838	Lichfield, Rugeley & Tamworth Banking Co.	1836
1839	Husband & Co., Devonport Devonport, Devon Devonport, formerly named Plymouth Dock or just Dock, is a district of Plymouth in the English county of Devon, although it was, at one time, the more important settlement. It became a county borough in 1889...	1810
1840	Fryer, Andrews & Co., Wimborne	c.1790
1840	Harris & Co., Dartmouth Dartmouth, Devon Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...	1806
1840	Hulke & Son, Deal Deal, Kent Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...	1808
1841	Minet & Fector, Dover Dover Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...	1700
1842	Cole, Holroyd & Co., Exeter Exeter Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...	1822
1843	Peter Pew & Co., Sherbourne Sherbourne Sherbourne may refer to::* Sherbourne, Warwickshire, a village in Warwickshire, England* Sherbourne , a subway station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada* River Sherbourne, a river in Coventry and Warwickshire...	c.1750
1843	Loveband & Co., Torrington Torrington -People:* Jeff Torrington, Scottish writer* George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, British naval officer and statesman-Places:In Australia:* Torrington, New South WalesIn Canada:* Torrington, AlbertaIn the United Kingdom:...	1808
1843	Ley & Co., Bideford Bideford Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...	c.1790
1844	Isle of Wight Joint-Stock Bank, Newport, Isle of Wight Newport, Isle of Wight Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...	1842
1855	Thomas Kinnersly & Sons, Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...	c.1780
1846	Stockton & Durham County Bank, Stockton Stockton-on-Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in north east England. It is the major settlement in the unitary authority and borough of Stockton-on-Tees. For ceremonial purposes, the borough is split between County Durham and North Yorkshire as it also incorporates a number of smaller towns including...	1838
1858	William Moore, Stone Stone, Kent Stone, also known as Stone-next-Dartford, is one of a string of villages lying along the Dartford to Gravesend road on the south bank of the River Thames in Kent, England.-History:...	1800
1868	Crawshay, Bailey & Co., Abergavenny Abergavenny Abergavenny , meaning Mouth of the River Gavenny, is a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 15 miles west of Monmouth on the A40 and A465 roads, 6 miles from the English border. Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches...	1837
1868	Bailey & Co., Newport Newport Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...	1837

By the mid-1860s, National Provincial had acquired more than a dozen small banks and had established 122 branches and sub-branches throughout England and Wales. It finally opened a London banking office in 1866, recognising that a presence in the world's financial capital was worth the sacrifice of its note-issuing privilege. In 1866 the bank opened a lavish head office at 15 Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate

Bishopsgate is a road and ward in the northeast part of the City of London, extending north from Gracechurch Street to Norton Folgate. It is named after one of the original seven gates in London Wall...

 in the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

, designed by John Gibson

John Gibson (architect)

John Gibson was an English architect born in Warwickshire.Gibson was an assistant to Sir Charles Barry and assisted him in the drawings of the Houses of Parliament....

. Expansion continued, and now that the National Provincial Bank of England was established in the capital it began to take over a number of London-based banking companies, as well as further acquisitions in the English provinces, namely:

Date	Acquisition	Established
1871	David Morris & Sons David Morris & Sons David Morris & Sons was a bank which was established in Carmarthenshire, Wales in the 18th century. It now a constituent part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.-History:... , Carmarthen Carmarthen Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....	c.1790
1878	Bank of Leeds	1864
1899	County of Stafford Bank	1836
1903	Knaresborough & Claro Banking Co.	1831
1918	William & John Biggerstaffe, London	c.1830s
1919	Sheffield Banking Co.	1831
1919	Bradford District Bank	1862
1920	Northamptonshire Union Bank	1836
1920	Richards & Co., Llangollen Llangollen Llangollen is a small town and community in Denbighshire, north-east Wales, situated on the River Dee and on the edge of the Berwyn mountains. It has a population of 3,412.-History:...	1854
1920	Shilson, Coode & Co., St Austell St Austell St Austell is a civil parish and a major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the south coast approximately ten miles south of Bodmin and 30 miles west of the border with Devon at Saltash...	1793
1922	Dingley & Co., Launceston	1855
1922	Dingley, Pearse & Co., Okehampton Okehampton Okehampton is a town and civil parish in West Devon in the English county of Devon. It is situated at the northern edge of Dartmoor, and has an estimated population of 7,155.-History:...	1856
1924	Guernsey Banking Co. Ltd.	1847

1911 saw the formation of Lloyds Bank (France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

) when Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank

Lloyds Bank Plc was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1765 until its merger into Lloyds TSB in 1995; it remains a registered company but is currently dormant. It expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies...

 acquired Armstrong and Co., based in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Le Havre

Le Havre

Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...

. From 1917 it was run jointly as Lloyds and National Provincial Bank. In 1955, Lloyds Bank bought full ownership and it became Lloyds Bank (Foreign) and later Lloyds Bank Europe.

Union of London and Smith's Bank

The bank continued to grow rapidly. At the turn of the 20th century, the company had about 250 offices in England and Wales and approximately £3 million in capital. After World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the company began an accelerated acquisition and merger strategy. The most important of its mergers during this time was with the Union of London and Smith's Bank, itself the product of the amalgamation of two of the most venerable banking institutions in England, which added 230 branches to National Provincial's growing financial network. Prescott's Bank was established in 1766 as Prescott, Grote, Culverden and Hollingsworth at Threadneedle Street

Threadneedle Street

Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, leading from a junction with Poultry, Cornhill, King William Street and Lombard Street, to Bishopsgate....

, but Prescott's own oldest constituent dates to 1750 via the merger in 1891 with Miles, Cave, Baillie & Co. In 1903 it merged with the Union of London and Smith's Bank which had been formed in 1902 from the merger of the Union Bank of London, established at Moorgate

Moorgate

Moorgate was a postern in the London Wall originally built by the Romans. It was turned into a gate in the 15th century. Though the gate was demolished in 1762, the name survives as a major street in the City of London...

 in 1839 and Smith, Payne and Smiths, established in 1758. After the 1918 merger, the bank traded for a few years as the National Provincial and Union Bank of England. In 1923, the bank acquired Grindlay and Co. and converted it to a limited liability company which would operate separately.

At this time, the bank was involved in a notable court case. In England and those common law

Common law

Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 jurisdictions whose approach follows that of English law

English law

English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countries and the United States except Louisiana...

 in treating the duty of confidentiality as resting in contract, the classic authority is the Court of Appeal

Court of Appeal of England and Wales

The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...

 decision in Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England

Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England

Tournier v National Provincial and Union Bank of England [1924] 1 KB 461 was a landmark legal case in the United Kingdom. It established the conditions under which banks owed confidentiality to their clients, allowing four circumstances wherein banks were not required to guard privacy: where...

[1924] 1KB 461. The duty extends at least to information concerning account transactions and extends beyond the date of the termination of the banker customer contract. Information attained from other sources, such as a credit reference agency, is also covered. The duty is not absolute for the bank may disclose information where the disclosure is under compulsion by law, where there is a duty to the public to disclose, where the interests of the bank require disclosure and where the disclosure is made by the express or implied consent of the customer.

In 1924, the bank shortened its name to National Provincial Bank Limited. By 1928, its balance sheet totalled almost £3 million. When National Provincial decided to exit overseas banking in 1948, it disposed of Grindlays Bank

Grindlays Bank

The Grindlays Bank was a major British overseas bank established in 1828.It operated mainly in British colonies, especially British India. After decolonization, it was a major foreign bank in India, Pakistan and other West Asian countries. As ANZ Grindlays Bank, it was for a while the largest...

 to the National Bank of India, headquartered in London, in return for shares and a cash payment. In 1968, the short-lived National Provincial and Rothschild Bank was jointly formed with N. M. Rothschild & Sons.

District Bank

Although National Provincial's growth had been interrupted by World War I, the bank vigorously renewed its acquisition programme after the war. Coutts & Co. private bankers, acquired in 1920, and North Central Wagon and Finance Co.

Lombard Direct

Lombard Direct is a British-based finance company that specialise in loans and insurance, founded in 1995. It is one of the largest finance houses in the United Kingdom and is now a member of the Royal Bank of Scotland group....

, acquired in 1958, were some of the significant purchases made by National Provincial. In 1961 National Provincial acquired the Isle of Man Bank

Isle of Man Bank

Isle of Man Bank Limited was founded on 26 October 1865, the first limited company to be formed after a new law, the Companies Act 1865, which paved the way for their establishment on the island...

, enabling it to enter merchant and offshore banking and in 1962, District Bank was bought to create a company with over £1.4 billion in assets and 2,100 branches, although the two banks maintained their separate identities and independent operations. The bank later introduced the personal loan and, in 1965, issued the precursor of the cheque guarantee card

Cheque guarantee card

A cheque guarantee card is essentially an abbreviated portable letter of credit granted by a bank to a qualified depositor, providing that when he is paying a business by cheque and the retailer writes the card number on the back of the cheque, the cheque is signed in the retailer's presence, and...

. In the same year a merchant banking subsidiary, County Bank, was also formed.

Westminster Bank

The merger of National Provincial and Westminster Bank

Westminster Bank

Westminster Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1834 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank in 1970; it remains a registered company but is dormant...

, announced in early 1968, shocked the British public and banking community. Although the Bank of England had indicated a willingness to allow mergers as part of a rationalisation process, no one had seriously believed it would permit mergers among the largest and most influential banks.

The District Bank, National Provincial, and Westminster Bank were fully integrated in the new firm's structure, while Coutts & Co., Ulster Bank

Ulster Bank

Ulster Bank is a large commercial bank, one of the Big Four in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Ulster Bank Group is subdivided into two separate legal entities, Ulster Bank Limited and Ulster Bank Ireland Limited...

 (a 1917 Westminster acquisition), and the Isle of Man Bank continued as separate operations. Duncan Stirling, chairman of Westminster Bank, became first chairman of the fifth largest bank in the world. In 1969 David Robarts, former chairman of National Provincial, assumed Stirling's position. The statutory process of integration was completed in 1969 and the new company, National Westminster Bank Limited, opened its doors for business on 1 January 1970. NatWest, as it became known, is now part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

Banknotes

Until the early 20th century, commercial banks in England and Wales were permitted to print their own money, subject to a number of limitations. The Country Bankers’ Act 1826 restricted the issue of banknotes by commercial banks in England and Wales, so that only provincial banks over 65 miles away from London were permitted to print their own money. As the National Provincial Bank was based outside London, it was free to issue its own banknotes. In 1866, when it opened its London headquarters, National Provincial was obliged to give up its note-issuing right and deal only in Bank of England notes

Bank of England note issues

The Bank of England, which is now the Central Bank of the United Kingdom, has issued banknotes since 1694. Since 1970, its new series of notes have featured portraits of British historical figures. Of the eight banks authorised to issue banknotes in the UK, only the Bank of England can issue...

.

The Bank Charter Act 1844

Bank Charter Act 1844

The Bank Charter Act 1844 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed under the government of Robert Peel, which restricted the powers of British banks and gave exclusive note-issuing powers to the central Bank of England....

 began the process which gave the Bank of England exclusive note-issuing powers. Under the Act, no new banks could start issuing notes, and note-issuing banks were barred form expanding their note issue. Gradually, these banks vanished through mergers and closures and their note-issuing powers went with them. The last private English banknotes were issued in 1921 by Fox, Fowler and Company

Fox, Fowler and Company

Fox, Fowler, and Company was a British private bank, based in Wellington, Somerset. The company was founded in 1787 as a supplementary business to the main activities of the Fox family, sheep-herding and wool-making.-Banknote issue:...

, a Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

bank. Today, the Bank of England has a monopoly of banknote issue in England and Wales.