ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the provision of savings facilities and financial services to domestic customers, and the raising of money for investment. Personal savings as a proportion of national income fell sharply in the inter-war period, not surprisingly given the attrition of rentier income due to inflation and then the depression. The number of building-society offices greatly increased, while contractual savings schemes became more ingenious and were much more heavily marketed. London is therefore still a world banking centre, although the type of business has changed and has only a tenuous connection with the developments of the nineteenth century. Finance, as already noted, was difficult, while the overhead costs of a small equity issue made it relatively expensive. In response to this, the Bank of England encouraged in 1945 the formation of the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, owned by the clearing banks, which, with various smaller equivalents, helped to provide finance for such companies.
