ABSTRACT

The classification and definition of banks and other financial institutions has changed over time in response to changing functions and to the altered needs of official policy. Under the 1979 Banking Act 1 the Bank of England is required to issue formal lists of ‘recognised banks’ and licensed deposit–takers (LDTs). By November 1981 the list covered some 578 institutions varying from giant American banks such as Citibank which conducts business in the UK, from the familiar names of the high street clearing banks such as Lloyds and the Midland Bank, to more modest concerns like the Cooperative Bank and Moneycare Ltd. It is this mixed group which constitutes the largest section of the officially–recognised ‘monetary sector’. 2 Other institutions officially considered by the mid–1980s to have been part of the monetary sector were the National Girobank, certain institutions in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, the Trustee Savings Banks, and the Banking Department of the Bank of England.