The Midland Bank - an ever-growing British giant, now swallowed up
Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in England and Wales for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. (The others were/are Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest).
The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Birmingham in 1836. After a period of nationwide expansion, including the acquisition of many smaller banks, the name Midland Bank Ltd was adopted in 1923. By 1934, it was the largest deposit bank in the world.
In 1984, in a bid to grab market share, Midland scrapped current account charges. This was so successful that all other banks in the United Kingdom had to quickly follow and offer the same or risk losing their customers. The country has had free banking ever since.
The Midland Bank was famous for its golden griffin logo, surrounded by golden coins originally introduced in 1965, and for its slogan "the listening bank,"
In 1992, it was taken over by HSBC Holdings plc - formerly the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation - a multinational who phased out the Midland Bank name by June 1999, in favour of HSBC Bank.
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