Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-20T00:14:00.412Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - The Changing Risk Culture of UK Banks

from Part II - A View of Risk Culture Concepts in Firms and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2020

Michelle Tuveson
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
Daniel Ralph
Affiliation:
Judge Business School, Cambridge
Kern Alexander
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Get access

Summary

This chapter analyses the changing risk culture of UK clearing banks by charting the rise of more active asset and liability management. We focus particularly on the banks’ entry into the wholesale money markets and residential mortgage lending. The pattern of household property tenure changed significantly over the twentieth century. Before World War One less than a quarter of English households owned their homes. There was little demand for mortgages, and even less appetite on the part of bankers to supply them. By 2006, nearly three-quarters of English households were owner-occupiers with mortgages comprising two-thirds of clearing bank assets. The banks had transformed from conservative institutions that largely matched short-term retail deposits with short-term assets into real-estate lenders heavily reliant on wholesale funding. This asset-liability maturity mismatch was at the heart of the Global Financial Crisis. We conclude that the regulatory changes implemented in the wake of the Crisis have failed adequately to address this fundamental issue.

Type
Chapter
Information
Beyond Bad Apples
Risk Culture in Business
, pp. 141 - 164
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin (BEQB)

Bank of England Statistical Abstract (BOESA)

The Economist

Financial Statistics

The Times

Ackrill, M. and Hannah, L. (2001). Barclays: The Business of Banking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Allen, W. A. (2012). Government debt management and monetary policy in Britain since 1919. BIS Working Paper no. 65.Google Scholar
Balogh, T. (1950). Studies in Financial Organization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Battilossi, S. (2000). Financial innovation and the golden ages of international banking: 1890–1931 and 1958–81. Financial History Review, 7(2), 141–75.Google Scholar
Battilossi, S. (2002). Banking with multinationals: British clearing banks and the Euromarkets’ challenge, 1958–1976. In Battilossi, S. and Cassis, Y. (eds), European Banks and the American Challenge: Competition and Cooperation in International Banking under Bretton Woods. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 103–34.Google Scholar
Boleat, M. (1985) National Housing Finance Systems: A Comparative Study. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Broadberry, S. N. and Howlett, P. (2005). The United Kingdom during World War I: business as usual? In Broadberry, S. N. and Harrison, M., eds., The Economics of World War I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 206–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, L. (1988). Breaking Up the Bank: Rethinking an Industry under Siege. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin.Google Scholar
Calomiris, C. W. and Haber, S. H. (2014). Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Capie, F. H. (2010) The Bank of England: 1950s to 1979. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, M. (1990). Money and Banking in the UK: A History. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Daunton, M. J. (1987). A Property-Owning Democracy? Housing in Britain. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar
Diamond, D. W. (1984). Financial intermediation and delegated monitoring. Review of Economic Studies, 51, 393–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, D. W. (2007). Banks and liquidity creation: a simple exposition of the Diamond–Dybvig model, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Economic Quarterly, 93(2), 189200.Google Scholar
Diamond, D. W. and Dybvig, P. H. (1983). Bank runs, deposit insurance, and liquidity. Journal of Political Economy, 91(3), 401–19.Google Scholar
Diamond, D. W. and Rajan, R. (2001). Liquidity risk, liquidity creation and financial fragility: a theory of banking. Journal of Political Economy, 109(2), 287327.Google Scholar
Dow, J. C. R. (1970) The Management of the British Economy, 1945–60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Einzig, P. (1971). The New Markets in London. Vol. 1 of Parallel Money Markets. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Fforde, J. S. (1983) Competition, innovation and regulation in British banking’, BEQB, 23(3), 363–76.Google Scholar
Fletcher, G. A. (1976). The Discount Houses in London: Principles, Operations, and Change. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gilbart, J. W. (1827). A Practical Treatise on Banking, 1st ed. London: E. Wilson.Google Scholar
Goodhart, C. A. E. (1984) Monetary Theory and Practice: The UK Experience. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Goodhart, C. A. E. (2015). Competition and Credit Control: some personal reflections. Financial History Review, 22(2), 235–46.Google Scholar
Goodhart, C. A. E. and Crockett, A. D. (1970). The importance of money. BEQB, 10(2), 159–98.Google Scholar
Goodhart, C. A. E. and Needham, D. J. (2017). Historical reasons for the focus on broad monetary aggregates in post-WW2 Britain and the ‘Seven Years War’ with the IMF. Financial History Review, 24(3), 331–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, C. (1993). The Cedar Story: The Night the City Was Saved. London: Sinclair–Stevenson.Google Scholar
Hotson, A. C. (2017) Respectable Banking: The Search for Stability in London’s Money and Credit Markets since 1695. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
House of Commons Treasury Committee (2008). The Run on the Rock: Fifth Report of Session 2007–08, vol. 1. London: The Stationary Office Limited. https://bit.ly/33oSBQ8Google Scholar
Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1st ed. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kim, S. W. (2017). The Euromarket and the making of the transnational network of finance, 1959–1979. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
King, W. T. C. (1936). History of the London Discount Market. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
London Clearing Banks (1977). Evidence by the Committee of London Clearing Bankers to the Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions. London: Committee of London Clearing Bankers.Google Scholar
Macmillan Committee (1931). Committee on Finance and Industry: Report (‘Macmillan Report’). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Merris, R. C. (1979). Business loans at large commercial banks: policies and practices, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Economic Perspectives, 3(21), 1523.Google Scholar
Monopolies Commission (1968). Barclays Bank Ltd, Lloyds Bank Ltd, and Martins Bank Ltd: A Report on the Proposed Merger. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Montgomery, C. J. (1977). The Clearing Banks, 1952–77: An Age of Progress: The Presidential Address of C. J. Montgomery. London: Institute of Bankers.Google Scholar
National Board for Prices and Incomes (1967). Report No. 34: Bank Charges, Cmnd 3292. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Needham, D. J. (2014). UK Monetary Policy from Devaluation to Thatcher, 1967–82. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Needham, D. J. (2018). Mortgages and mismatching – the transformation of British clearing banks. The Property Chronicle, 19 October 2018. www.propertychronicle.com/mortgages-and-mismatching/Google Scholar
Nevin, E. T. and Davis, E. W. (1970). The London Clearing Banks. London: Elek.Google Scholar
Offer, A. (1981). Property and Politics, 1870–1914: Landownership, Law, Ideology and Urban Development in England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Offer, A. (2014). Narrow banking, real estate, and financial stability in the UK c.1870–2010. In Dimsdale, N. H. and Hotson, A. C., eds., British Financial Crises since 1825. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Radcliffe Committee (1959). Committee on the Working of the Monetary System: Report (‘Radcliffe Report’). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Rae, G. (1885). The Country Banker: His Clients, Cares and Work from an Experience of Forty Years, 2nd ed., London: Murray.Google Scholar
Reid, M. I. (1982). The Secondary Banking Crisis, 1973–75: Its Causes and Course. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Revell, J.R.S. (1972). A secondary banking system. In Johnson, H. G. and Associates, eds., Readings in British Monetary Economics. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Rogers, D. (1999). The Big Four British Banks: Organisation, Strategy and Future. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sayers, R. S. Modern Banking, 7th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Schularick, M. and Taylor, A. M. (2012). Credit booms gone bust: monetary policy, leverage cycles, and financial crises, 1870–2008. American Economic Review, 102(2), 1029–61.Google Scholar
Sykes, E. (1947), Banking and Currency, 9th ed. London: ButterworthGoogle Scholar
Tucker, P. M. W. (2004). Managing the central bank’s balance sheet: where monetary policy meets financial stability, BEQB, 44(3), 359–82.Google Scholar
Turner, A. (2009). The Turner Review: A Regulatory Response to the Global Banking Crisis. London: Financial Services Authority. https://bit.ly/2NcXNRJGoogle Scholar
Vickers, J. (2011a). Interim Report: Consultation on Reform Options. London: Independent Commission on Banking.Google Scholar
Vickers, J. (2011b). Final Report of the Independent Commission on Banking. London: Independent Commission on Banking.Google Scholar
Wolf, M. H. (2014). The Shifts and the Shocks: What We’ve Learned – and Have Still to Learn – from the Financial Crisis. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar

Other Sources

Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin (BEQB)

Bank of England Statistical Abstract (BOESA)

The Economist

Financial Statistics

The Times

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×