More years ago than I care to remember, I wrote a mnemonic for the big five banks: LBWNM. I can't for the life of me remember what the W was for. I think the line up has now changed; does anyone know when this happened, and what the big four are now?
Who were the Big Five?
Oct 03, 2010
21 Replies
W = Westminster Bank N = National Provincial Bank
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Chris
I assume it's Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, Lloyds-TSB.
No, before you was born.
Don't forget the District Bank, assimilated by the National Provincial in
1962.
Wot about Martin's Bank and Williams & Glyn's Bank?
Remember Williams Deacons Bank?
Is Coutt's the Queens bankers still about ?
Glyn, Mills Bank absorbed Williams Deacon's bank.
Coutts is still around but now owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, which also owns NatWest, btw.
William & Glyn's?
NatWest is part of RBS.
The historical big five were
Midland Westminster Lloyds National Provincial Barclays
Lloyds joined with the Trustee Savings Bank to become LloydsTSB The Midland was taken over by HSBC Westminster and National Provincial became NatWest Williams and Glyns were bought out by RBS. Williams Deacons Bank is one of those that joined with others to form Williams and Glyns. Coutts was part of NatWest before the RBS takeover.
I suppose these days, you could measure how big a bank is by how much money it lost.
Tell us more about that, poor The Retard! Give this group a chance to learn about you and your psychotic twisted views on life! I'm here to assist you doing just that! ;-)
Wot about them, poor The Retard? Do you find they are "Jew infested"? Come on, "grace" this thread and this group with your subnormality!
Barclays, Lloyds, Westminster, National Provincial and Midland.
Westminster and National Provincial merged to become National Westminster and Midland were taken over, to save their life, by The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, now known as HSBC. Lloyds took over TSB, whilst Barclays added Martins Bank (a Liverpool based bank with the sign of the golden grasshopper) to their empire and then stamped out its identity.
I wonder if we will soon be back (if we are not already) to the 'big five' with Santander taking the fifth slot.
I remember Williams & Glyn's now, and Coutts, although I don't think Coutts were quite that big.
Martins incorporated the Bank of Liverpool and various other smaller banks (e.g. Kendal Bank) were incoroporated into the BoL. The old Martins Bank building is fantastic.
I've got a picture somewhere of an early W&G cash machine somewhere.
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