British Bank of Northern Commerce
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The British Bank of Northern Commerce was founded in February 1912 by
Knut Agathon Wallenberg Knut Agathon Wallenberg (19 May 1853 – 1 June 1938) was a Swedish banker and politician, he was also a Knight of the Order of the Seraphim. Wallenberg was Minister for Foreign Affairs 1914–1917, and member of the Riksdag's ''Första kammare ...
of the Stockholms Enskilda Bank and Emil Glückstadt of Landmandsbanken (
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), together with several other banks including Centralbanken for Norge ( Christiania), Banque de Commerce de l`Azoff-Don ( Petrograd), and Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas (Paris). The purpose of the bank was to facilitate trade between the United Kingdom and northern Europe. The bank financed
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
after the country achieved its independence from Russia in 1917-18. In June 1919 the bank offered the chairmanship of its board to
John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
with the assurance that in return for a salary of £2000 the job would only take a morning a week. Keynes had met Wallenberg and Glückstadt during World War I and the offer was attractive. However, Keynes consulted with several bankers in the City and turned the offer down.Moggridge (1995), p.352. In October 1920 British Bank of Northern Commerce merged with C.J. Hambro & Sons, with the combined bank taking the name Hambros Bank of Northern Commerce. In August 1921 the bank shortened its name to
Hambros Bank Hambros Bank was a British bank based in London. The Hambros bank was a specialist in Anglo-Scandinavian business with expertise in trade finance and investment banking, and was the sole banker to the Scandinavian kingdoms for many years. The Bank ...
, in part because it did not want a name that was too limiting.


Citations and references

Citations References *Moggridge, Donal Edward (1995) ''Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography''. (Taylor & Francis). {{ISBN, 978-0-415-12711-0 *Wechsberg, Joseph (1966) ''The merchant bankers''. (Little, Brown). Defunct banks of the United Kingdom Banks established in 1912 1912 establishments in the United Kingdom