REPORT. 
TO THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HIS MAJESTY’S TREASURY. 
1. We, the undersigned Committee, appointed by Treasury Minute of the 11th March 
last, beg to submit our report to Your Lordships. 
2. We have held eight meetings, and have examined the following witnesses, viz. :— 
Sir E. Holden, Bart, Chairman and Managing Director of the London City and 
Midland Bank, 
Professor H. S. Foxwell, Professor of Political Economy in the University of London, 
Mr. O. C. Quekett, Chairman of the Stock Exchange Committee, 
Mr. Henry Bell, Director and General Manager of Lloyds Bank, 
Mr. Gaspard Farrer, of Baring Bros. and Co., Ltd., 
Mr. Harold Snagge, of Messrs. E. Boustead & Co., 
"Mr. J. F. Darling, General Manager of the London Joint Stock Bank, 
Mr. Beaumont Pease, Deputy Chairman of Lloyds Bank, 
Mr. Oswald Stoll, 
Mr. Thomas Goodwin, Manager of the Co-operative Wholesale Society's Bank, 
Mr. Sidney Webb, 
Mr. A. W. Flux, of the Board of Trade, : 
Sir Charles Addis, of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Ltd., 
Sir Herbert Hambling, Chairman of the London and South-Western Bank, 
Mr. Christopher Nugent, of the Union Discount Company of London, Ltd., 
Viscount Cowdray, 
Mr. Gordon Selfridge, 
Sir James'Hope Simpson, General Manager of the Bank of Liverpool, Ltd., 
Mr. T. B. Johnston, of Messrs. Pountney & Co., Ltd., Bristol, 
Lord Inchcape, Director of the National Provincial and Union Bank of England, Ltd., 
Mr. Walter Leaf, Chairman of the London County, Westminster and Parr's Bank, Ltd., 
and . ; 
Mr. D. Drummond Fraser, Joint Managing Director of the Manchester and Liverpool 
Distriet Banking Co., Ltd. 
We have also received a number of communications in writing from gentlemen in various 
parts of the country, in response to a notice which we inserted in the press inviting represen- 
tations from the public generally. Unfortunately, time did not permit of our taking oral 
evidence from more than a limited number of witnesses. . 
3. Bank absorptions and amalgamations are, of course, no new phenomenon in this 
country. About 300 instances have occurred in the past, more than half of which have taken 
place in the last 50 years. In one or two cases arrangements made provisionally for amalga- 
mations have been defeated by the opposition of local customers of the bank which it was 
proposed to absorb; but, on the whole, banking policy has gradually but steadily pursued 
the path of consolidation and absorption, and, until recently, the amalgamations effected have, 
generally speaking, been carried through without stirring up serious opposition or arousing 
public interest. As a result, the number of private banks has fallen from 37 to 6 since 1891, 
and the number of English joint stock banks from 106 to 34 during the same period. 
4. Several recent amalgamations, however, have undoubtedly provoked an unusual 
amount of interest, and have been seriously criticised in certain quarters. This change in 
public opinion appears to be due mainly to the fact that amalgamations have changed their 
type and consist no longer in the absorption of a local bank by a larger and more widely 
spread joint stock bank, but in the union of two joint stock banks, both already possessing 
large funds and branches spread over a wide area. These two types of amalgamation differ 
very materially from one another, and arguments used to justify the former type do not 
necessarily apply to the latter. 
THE OLD TYPE OF AMALGAMATION—ABSORPTION OF LOCAL BANKS 
BY A LARGER AND MORE WIDELY-SPREAD JOINT STOCK BANK. 
5. As modern amalgamations are mainly of the new type, it is unnecessary for us to 
elaborate the various arguments used in connection with amalgamations of the older type. 
Very briefly, what the arguments amount to is that both the local (or more or less local) bank 
and the larger widely-spread bank secure to their customers certain advantages of a different 
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