England

Abstract

This chapter considers aspects of the banker-customer relationship under English law. The legal content of the relationship was the subject of unprecedented scrutiny in the form of a Review Committee on Banking Law and Practice set up by the Government in 1987 in response to the political pressures generated by a bank collapse. A feature of English banking practice is that the legal content of this relationship is usually not spelt out in a comprehensive written contract between the parties entered into when the account is opened; rather it has been defined over the years in the case law. In the leading case of Tournier v. National Provincial & Union Bank of England it was held by the court of Appeal that a similar prohibition applies to the banker-customer relationship. A single financial regulator has been formed, and powers of banking supervision have been vested in it under the Bank of England Act 1998.