The office of First or Chief Cashier was one of the original appointments on the foundation of the Bank of England in 1694: the Chief Cashier was at that time primus inter pares of the senior officials of the Bank and continued to be so until the rearrangement of responsibilities introduced by Governor Richardson nearly 300 years later in 1980. At that date the Bank's market responsibilities were transferred to newly formed Divisions and the remainder of the Cashier's Department became the Banking Department. This chapter describes the organisation and activities of the Cashier's Department in the years during and after the Second World War. The principal operational Department of the Bank, it undertook a full range of banking services for the Bank's customers, including discounts and advances, handled the Bank's day-to-day operations in the gilt-edged, money and foreign exchange markets and was responsible for the management of the note issue. It also acted as an issuing house on behalf of the government and of various other customers. In 1939 the Chief Cashier assumed responsibility for Exchange Control, which he retained until 1972 when it became a separate Department; its organisation is described in chapter 3. The Department's responsibilities for the note issue and for Branch banking, carried out via the Issue and Branch Banks Offices respectively, have also been fully covered in the relevant chapters and these Offices are not included here.