The Exchange and Assembly Rooms - geograph

Belfast Banking Company sign, Belfast - geograph

The Belfast Banking Company was a bank in Northern Ireland. It was established in 1827 by a merger of Batt's (also known as The Belfast Bank) and Tennant's (The Commercial Bank). The Belfast Banking Company operated primarily in Ulster and sold its branches in other provinces following the formation of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

. It was acquired by the

London City and Midland Bank Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836. It ...

in 1917 and in 1970 was merged with

Northern Bank Northern Bank Limited T/A Danske Bank is a retail bank in Northern Ireland. Northern Bank is one of the oldest banks in Ireland having been formed in 1809, and forms part of one of the Big Four banks in Ireland. Northern Bank took on the name ...

, which had also been acquired by the Midland.

History

The Belfast Banking Company was established as a limited company on 2 July 1827 by a merger of the last two private banks in Belfast, Ireland: Batt's/The Belfast Bank (established 1808) and Tennant's/The Commercial Bank. The company had 337 shareholders at establishment and opened for business on 1 August 1827. It operated in a similar manner to the Northern Banking Company but focussed almost exclusively on

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United King ...

. The bank did not establish a branch in Dublin until 1892. In 1917 the Belfast Banking Company was sold to the

. Seventeen bank staff were killed while serving with the British armed forces in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and are commemorated in a memorial window at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast. In the year following Irish independence in 1922 the 20 Belfast Banking Company branches in the newly established

were sold to the

Royal Bank of Ireland Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. is one of the so-called Big Four commercial banks in Ireland. AIB offers a full range of personal, business and corporate banking services. The bank also offers a range of general insurance products such as home, trav ...

. By the 1920s the bank had permission to issue banknotes in Northern Ireland. In 1927 staff raised £500 to name, in perpetuity, a bed at the Royal Victoria Hospital after the bank to mark its centenary.

Merger

In 1965 the Midland Bank acquired the Northern Bank and set in place measures to merge the two companies. This process was complicated as both banks were note-issuing entities and if a third company was created, as would be usual practice, it would not hold the same powers. The merger was achieved on 1 July 1970, through an act of the British parliament, with the new company using the Northern Bank name. The bank asked that its staff wear red carnations to mark a "happy and memorable day". There followed a rationalisation of the merged company's 287 branches, many of which were located in the same street as others. The company was later acquired by the

National Australia Bank National Australia Bank (abbreviated NAB, branded nab) is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia (colloquially referred to as "The Big Four") in terms of market capitalisation, earnings and customers. NAB was ranked 21st-la ...

and is now owned by

Danske Bank Danske Bank A/S is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail customers. ...

and trades under their brand.

References

{{reflist Banks established in 1827 Banknote issuers of Northern Ireland 1827 establishments in Ireland Banks of Northern Ireland Companies based in Belfast