London Bank Research Articles

The new Lombard Street: how the Fed became the dealer of last resort

Walter Bagehot's Lombard Street, published in 1873 in the wake of a devastating London bank collapse, explained in clear and straightforward terms why central banks must serve as the lender of last resort to ensure liquidity in a faltering credit system. Bagehot's book set down the principles that helped define the role of modern central banks, particularly in times of crisis--but the recent global financial meltdown has posed unforeseen challenges. The New Lombard Street lays out the innovative principles needed to address the instability of today's markets and to rebuild our financial system. Revealing how we arrived at the current crisis, Perry Mehrling traces the evolution of ideas and institutions in the American banking system since the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913. He explains how the Fed took classic central banking wisdom from Britain and Europe and adapted it to America's unique and considerably more volatile financial conditions. Mehrling demonstrates how the Fed increasingly found itself serving as the dealer of last resort to ensure the liquidity of securities markets--most dramatically amid the recent financial crisis. Now, as fallout from the crisis forces the Fed to adapt in unprecedented ways, new principles are needed to guide it. In The New Lombard Street, Mehrling persuasively argues for a return to the classic central bankers' view, which looks to the money market to assess risk and restore faith in our financial system.

Comments on George Ramsay's ‘Thomas More, joint keeper of the exchange’

Thomas More was appointed joint keeper of the exchanges in London for foreign exchange and at Calais in 1520, in partnership with a Genoese merchant, George Ardison. This article explores the background to this appointment, investigating the regulation of exchange payments to the Roman curia and the business links between Ardison and the London bank of his fellow Genoese Antony Vyvold. Ardison was the last in a series of Genoese farmers of the exchanges. The exchanges were granted to Thomas Boleyn in 1509, and from 1511 to 1520 Ardison was in partnership with another courtier, John Sharp.

Tragic Life-Journeys and Real-Life Journeys: The Place Where Three Ways Meet

I reckon myself to be a sufficiently competent map-reader to find routes that are interesting and scenic rather than merely obvious. Today I have mapped out a lecture with a track that is far from direct or main-road: I am going to wander and diverge to various look-out points and hidden spots along the way. I hope that, nonetheless, it will become clear that it has an itinerary and a destination.‘Life is a journey from the cradle to the grave.’ When we want to piece together some theme in the story of our life, we try to establish some time-markers, and we tend to string these along a kind of path or route. And we often pinpoint places in counterpoint with the time. This modelling of life as a road is a ‘metaphor we live by’, to borrow an apt phrase from cognitive studies; and the ancient Greeks often used this metaphor as well. The prime itinerary of our social and inner life would probably be constructed from our rites de passage, our close relationships, our inspirations; and very often we trace these through places as well. I was asked recently to write a very brief intellectual autobiography (so far), and I found that I was plotting it through locations: Epidauros, Oxford, the South Bank in London, Delphi, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles … And the same would be no less applicable to the story of my personal life, with some key places in common - Delphi, for instance.

A new type of “Third Place”?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of “Third Place” in an arts context by exploring the consumption of two arts venues, Tate Modern and the Southbank Centre (SBC) on the regenerated South Bank in London, UK.Design/methodology/approachAn interpretative phenomenological approach was taken drawing on 45 qualitative interviews that were conducted in and around Tate Modern and the SBC during Autumn 2009.FindingsFour audience groups were identified segmented by their motivations, experiences and feelings about the two buildings. The first group “Place to see” visit Tate Modern and the SBC to attend exhibitions and performances. The second meet friends and spend time in the cafes and bars using them as a “Place to hang‐out and meet”. The third group use the buildings as a “Place to drop‐in” on their way to somewhere else. The fourth group use the SBC as a “Third Place”, to study, for meetings, to read, escape and rejuvenate.Research limitations/implicationsThis was an exploratory paper. Further research is required to test the findings in other art museums, arts venues, libraries, parks and other public and private spaces within communities.Originality/valueThe paper fills a gap by drawing on the “Third Place” literature to explore the consumption of art museums and venues. It provides us with a better understanding of the meanings these public buildings have to individuals, the way they are used by the public and how arts managers might attract new audiences from their communities. It also provides insights for planners and town centre managers as to the types of places individuals are seeking during their daily lives.

The bank clerk in Victorian society: the case of Hoare and Company

PurposeThis paper aims to consider the role of the bank clerk in the Victorian era and to provide insights into clerical life in a London bank during the period.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the archival records of Hoare and Company. Founded in the seventeenth century, it is the oldest surviving independent bank in the UK.FindingsDrawing on the company's archival records, the paper examines issues such as recruitment, house rules, acts of paternalism and the overwhelming concern with maintaining respectability. While Hoare's clerks humorously referred to themselves as the Association of the Sons of Toil, the records support the literature in revealing the relatively cosseted career of the bank clerk within Victorian clerical circles. He generally enjoyed a higher salary, longer holidays and more favourable working conditions than his clerical counterparts. It was therefore a highly sought after position. Only those of impeccable character however, were recruited into its ranks.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests the potential significance of Victorian values to the recruitment and general working conditions of contemporary members of the financial community.Originality/valueThe paper's value lies in supplementing the existing literature with further insights into the life of the Victorian bank clerk.

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law

Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, 10.1628/003372510791696498, Jahrgang 74 (2010) / Heft 3, 0033-7250 (1868-7059), The Rabel Journal of Comparative and International Private Law

Concentration and competition: The changing landscape of the banking sector in South Africa 1970–2007

The banking sector in South Africa has been dominated by British-owned banks since the second half of the nineteenth century, both in nature and size. In the Cape Colony privately incorporated banks were only permitted after 1823. By the early 1830s 28 local banks thrived in the agricultural prosperity of the colony. In 1860 The London & South Africa Bank was the first of the Imperial banks to open its doors, followed by Standard Bank in 1862. Four successive bank crises in the Cape Colony in 1865, 1876, 1881 and 1890 practically wiped out the local independent banks, leaving only two British banks, Standard Bank and Bank of Africa, established in 1880 out of remnants of the Oriental Banking Corporation. By 1890 only seven banks remained active in the Cape Colony.

Advances in Regenerative Medicine

Achieving the long-term goal of routine clinical application of regenerative medicine will require close collaboration between academia, clinicians, regulators, tissue engineers and industry. Currently, some celland gene-based therapies are showing positive signs in the limited number of patients receiving treatment, but such applications are still far from routine and the regulatory landscape remains complex. The potential opportunities for new cell therapies must be explored alongside the ongoing developments of existing techniques to integrate the new opportunities in a truly translational approach. Researchers from academia and industry across the EU gathered at a recent conference to share results and ideas, and to consider the current status and future opportunities for regenerative medicine. Novel biomaterials, cell therapy to repair damaged tissue, and cell and tissue transplantation were discussed alongside industry challenges relating to building a stem-cell company within the current financial and regulatory landscapes. Third-generation biomaterials provide exciting new opportunities for biomimetic, multifunctional scaffolds upon which to regenerate new cells in vivo, according to Nuredding Ashammakhi (Keele University, UK). The aim is to promote healing with cells similar to those which were lost, rather than scar tissue. Ashammaki’s group is working with nanobiopolymers that can be ‘spun’ into nanofibers of various thicknesses and mimic the function of the extracellular matrix. Active agents such as growth factors and anti-inflammatory drugs can also be incorporated in and on the fibers, providing local, timedelayed release of bioactive compounds at the site of regeneration. Prof. Ashammakhi’s group has demonstrated the orientation of such fibers can also be influenced, which is important for the regeneration of tissues such as tendon, ligament and neural tissue. Regenerative medicine can hopefully help address the current issues surrounding transplantation to replace failing organs or tissues. The number of transplant donors is declining, the regulations for organ donation are becoming ever more stringent and recipients of donor material must undergo long-term immunosuppression to prevent rejection. By harnessing stem cells that are maintained through adult life to restore tissue function, transplantation could ultimately be replaced by cell or tissue therapy. An example of this was discussed by Julie Daniels, Director of the Moorfields Eye Hospital Cells for Sight Tissue Bank in London. Her group has developed a method of culturing limbal epithelial stem cells, which reside at the periphery of the cornea in adult humans. By growing the cultured cells either as explants or as a feeder layer on human amniotic membrane, a confluent sheet can be grown in 3 weeks. This can then be transplanted onto the eye of patients. With 60% of treated patients so far maintaining intact grafts and reporting visual improvement and pain relief, the future challenges for this technology include increasing reproducibility, efficacy and scale-up. A further example of stem cells being used to repair injured tissue was described by Roberto Revoltella from the

Private borrowing during the financial revolution: Hoare's Bank and its customers, 1702–241

The financial revolution improved the British government's ability to borrow, and thus its ability to wage war. North and Weingast argued that it also permitted private parties to borrow more cheaply and widely. We test these inferences with evidence from a London bank. We confirm that private bank credit was cheap in the early eighteenth century, but we argue that it was not available widely. Importantly, the government reduced the usury rate in 1714, sharply reducing the circle of private clients that could be served profitably.

A Century of Banking in Latin America: To Commemorate the Centenary in 1962 of the Bank of London & South America Limited. By David Joslin. London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

A Century of Banking in Latin America: To Commemorate the Centenary in 1962 of the Bank of London & South America Limited. By David Joslin. London: Oxford University Press, 1963. - Volume 82 Issue 3

Economic Evaluation of Bank Exit Regimes in US, EU and Japanese Financial Centres

This paper evaluates bank exit regimes in selected financial centres using econometric methods. The focus is on bank exit regimes applicable to commercial banks in New York, London, Frankfurt, Helsinki and Tokyo in 1998-2002. Bank exit regimes are studied from the perspective of bank creditors and bank shareholders. In order to apply econometric methods, the exit regimes are indexed and then evaluated by comparing them with market indicators that reflect the interests of bank creditors and shareholders. These market indicators comprise bank refinancing costs and bank growth rates. In other words, two specific questions are addressed: (1) Do differences in bank exit regimes of significance to bank creditors explain differences in bank refinancing costs? (2) Do differences in bank exit regimes significant to bank shareholders explain differences in bank growth? The study shows that in those financial centres where the probability of bailout is higher, refinancing costs for banks are lower.

Choice of scale by banks in financial centers

The paper develops a theoretical link between foreign investment, scale and reversibility in the banking industry. This link is used to formulate hypotheses that are empirically examined with a unique data set collected through interviews with senior managers of multinational banks in London. Findings reveal that banks do not set up large operations to service domestic customers or get a foothold, but do so to create hubs. Banks with confident beliefs set up large operations, and use large offices to lock themselves into the market. These results explain the cross-sectional variation in the size of foreign investments in the industry. Robustness checks do not reveal presence of influential data points; regressions are stable over time and consistent with what we know from secondary samples.

Prevention strategies for the next wave of cyber crime

Internet scams such as phishing and pharming are now regular headline hitters. When financial institutions such as banks and insurers are affected, you can be sure that the public will start to watch the people who are meant to be securing their assets. The professional hacker only cares about making money, not about public perception, shareholder profits or revenue growth; the worries of a normal business. When faced with such devotion to a cause, can the financial sector ever prevent an attack on its systems? It needs a new approach and new strategies for what are still very new crimes. A scientist from Verisign takes us through some prevention tools. Internet scams such as 'phishing' and identity theft have made global headlines in 2005. The foiled @$220m heist against Sumitomo Bank in London in March is just one example of the potential aftermath of such attacks. Online fraud threatens to erode the public's trust in the Internet, and the bad news is that cyber criminals, notably phishing gangs, are increasingly employing more sophisticated tactics. As soon as the IT industry copes with one threat, another emerges in response to anti-phishing countermeasures.

From “Business as Usual” to a More Global War: The British Decision to Attack Germans in South America during the First World War

A t the end of 1915, the British government decided to extend the First World War across the Atlantic by waging an unprecedented campaign against Germans in South America. The new “Statutory List” prohibited British people from conducting commercial and financial transactions with designated “enemies” in neutral countries. In this war, British officials used their nation’s commerce as their arsenal. They believed that by controlling the transatlantic trade of British-flagged merchant shipping, London banks, and British-made products, they could permanently force Germans in South America out of business, while helping Britons to take their place. Many aspects of the extra-European dimensions of Britain’s effort during the First World War have been well combed by historians, including military campaigns and naval battles, the attitudes of the empire (especially the Dominions) toward the war, and the importance of the United States to Britain’s success. The British

Riding the South Sea Bubble

This paper presents a case study of a well-informed investor in the South Sea bubble. We argue that Hoare's Bank, a fledgling West End London bank, knew that a bubble was in progress and nonetheless invested in the stock: it was profitable to “ride the bubble.” Using a unique dataset on daily trades, we show that this sophisticated investor was not constrained by such institutional factors as restrictions on short sales or agency problems. Instead, this study demonstrates that predictable investor sentiment can prevent attacks on a bubble; rational investors may attack only when some coordinating event promotes joint action.

Symbols of Organization: Informal Ways of Negotiating the Global and the Local in MNCs

Abstract In this article I build on the growing number of anthropological studies of businesses and explore the role that symbols play in the development of globalizing business networks. Transnational business people employ symbols not only to define boundaries between groups and develop collective solidarity but also to construct continuously changing networks between different social spaces and even, in the final analysis, between the concepts of global and local. The case study presented here focuses on the use of the symbols defining ‘German business style’ by the employees of a branch of a German bank in London as they interact with colleagues in the office, staff at their Frankfurt head office, and their clients and competitors. I conclude that, first, the use of symbols in social interaction is key to the negotiation of global and local spaces, and second, that, as the concepts of ‘global’ and ‘local’ spaces are themselves symbolic constructs, the drawing of distinctions between the two may be misleading.

An interview with Peter Drucker

Executive Overview Peter F. Drucker is a writer, teacher, and consultant specializing in strategy and policy for businesses and social sector organizations. For nearly 60 years now, he has been one of the most influential thinkers and writers about management. He has consulted with many of the world's largest corporations as well as with nonprofit organizations, small and entrepreneurial companies, and with agencies of the US government. He has also worked with free-world governments such as those of Canada, Japan, and Mexico. He is the author of thirty-four books which have been translated into more than twenty languages. Thirteen books deal with society, economics, and politics; fifteen deal with management. Two of his books are novels, one is autobiographical, and he is a co-author of a book on Japanese painting. He has made four series of educational films based on his management books. He has been an editorial columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review and other periodicals. Drucker was born in 1909 in Vienna and was educated there and in England. He took his doctorate in public and international law while working as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt, Germany. He then worked as an economist for an international bank in London. Drucker came to the United States in 1937. He began his teaching career as professor of politics and philosophy at Bennington College; for more than twenty years he was professor of management at the Graduate Business School of New York University. The recipient of many awards and honorary degrees, Peter Drucker has, since 1971, been Clarke Professor of Social Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Its Graduate Management School was named after him in 1984. Peter Drucker has been hailed in the United States and abroad as the seminal thinker, writer, and lecturer on the contemporary organization. In 1997, he was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine under the headline “Still the Youngest Mind,” and BusinessWeek has called him “the most enduring management thinker of our time.” On July 9, 2002 President George W. Bush presented Peter Drucker with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. The award was presented at a special ceremony at the White House. He is married and has four children and six grandchildren. While Drucker's contributions to the study and practice of management have been enduring, varied, and profound, his book The Practice of Management which appeared in 1954 stands out as a seminal and timeless source of influence on the field. Many credit this book with making management a legitimate field of intellectual inquiry, thoughtful analysis and, above all, practice. In the interview that follows, Drucker looks back into the sources of his inspiration to write this important book, assesses the book's impact, and reflects on the value of management education. As noted in the companion academic commentary, Drucker was one of the first champions of management education, advocating a close link between practice and scientific inquiry, a view that he continues to hold today.

Lewy body cortical involvement may not always predict dementia in Parkinson’s disease

Background: The presence of Lewy bodies (LB) in the neocortex and limbic system in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) is commonly thought to be linked with cognitive impairment. The authors...

Los intereses de los banqueros británicos en España: la Banca Baring y su pugna con los Rothschild por el control del mercurio de Almadén

This article studies the circumstances under which Baring's Bank, in London, became involved in Spanish finance in the middle of the nineteenth century, and the struggle between these bankers and the Rothschilds, traditional bankers of the government, over the mercury of Almaden. Baring's did not lack the support of some members of the government, including Bravo Murillo, who attempted in vain to break the links of dependency established with the Rothschilds since 1834. Using documents from both banks in London, the article presents information about the financial world of Madrid in the mid-nineteenth century, especially concerning organizations so little known as the Banco de Ultramar and Fomento, as well as on various individual bankers like O'Shea, agents of Baring's in Madrid.

The Impact of British Socialism on Latin American Studies

THE IMPACT OF BRITISH SOCIALISM ON LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES GORDON BROTHERSTON Stanford University Towards the end ofthe Second World War, Churchill and the Conservative element in the Coalition Government that then ruled Britain came to contemplate the prospect of the defeat that they in fact sustained in the first post-war election, in 1945. In a vain populist effort to ward off this defeat, they passed the famous EducationAct of 1944, which effectively was the first to give most people in Britain access to higher learning. As such, it was enthusiastically implemented by Atlee's Socialist government, after the Labour Party won that election (Britain then being economically punished by the US for their democratic choice). Over the next ten to fifteen years, despite Churchill's eventual victory in 1951, the ideals of this Act were carried through into the planning for and founding of the new Universities, which more than doubled the national total. Only with the emergence of New Toryism under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s were radical attempts made to turn the clock back to pre- 1944, Thatcher herself having ironically been perhaps the Act's most conspicuous beneficiary: she gained two doctorates entirely at public expense, only then to deny that possibility to any one else. The 1944 Act and the New Universities of the 1960s brought with them new understandings of academic mission, discipline and subject area, and these proved especially relevant to readings of Latin America. This was thanks also to the setting up ofthe Parry centres, likewise in the 1960s, to encourage research and teaching in that area. Local twists were given to the general notion ofarea studies. As the main Parry Centre, the London Institute diverged from the traditional City alignments of Canning and Chatham House, and the Bank of London and South America (BOLSA). At Sussex, Latin America became the focus of 'development' theory, while at East Anglia Gunder Frank promoted his ideas of Dependency. In some cases these trends went so far as to raise a definite challenge to the implicit hegemonic model typical ofthe US and the metropolis. At Warwick, a hemispheric framework was set up, thanks to Alistair Hennessey, which presupposed as superfluous Lewis Hanke's question: "Do the Americas have a common history?", especially insofar as that common history could be understood to antedate the European invasion. In this arrangement, the United States itselfwas treated as an© 2002-2003 NUEVO TEXTO CRITICO Vol. XV-XVI No. 29-32 122_________________________________________GORDON BROTHERSTON "area" comparable to LatinAmerica, as it was at the University ofEssex. At Essex, Paul Thompson, Ernesto Laclau, Carlos Fortin, DawnAdes and many others worked within Schools that dispensed with departments ofhistory and lang./lit., in favour ofSociology, Government, Art Theory and Literature, an overwhelmingly productive arrangement. The interface between Art and Literature, for example, allowed for pedagogical analysis ofthe Mexican codices that simply was not practicable at that time at other institutions; while that between Sociology and Literature resulted in a series ofinternationally influential conferences, in which Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall (ofCultural Studies fame) were hallowed names. The proceedings (Barker et al. 1 986) became a main reference for Latin Americanists, not least those who would later take up similar approaches in the US (Doris Sommer and José Rabasa, for instance). In all, the growth of Latin American area studies in Britain showed up the importance ofacademic structures as such and promoted strategies ofoccupying available space, in the sense discussed by Beatriz Sarlo in "Cultural Studies and Literary Criticism at the Crossroad of Values" (1999). Further local specifics ofthe British situation are worth noting. Like most ofthe West, Britain belonged to NATO ofcourse. But it had no Joe McCarthy, and by 1947, with the loss ofIndia, knew itselfat heart to be no longer imperial. Under Churchill especially, it bowed meekly to the US, turning Neruda back at Dover in 1952 (Neruda's exile having been prompted in the first place by the US's collusion with González Videla). Yet it certainly had nothing like the McCarren-Walter act of that year, which kept an impressive array of Latin Americans out of the US. Indeed, under Labour's Harold Wilson, the UK later welcomed Neruda, along...