FINANCIAL NOTES.
What may be termed the spirit of anti-bank amalgama- tions is in the air, and I doubt if it would be easy now- adays to get Treasury consent to a banking fusion involv- ing any important increase in the size of our mammoth banking institutions. Of an entirely different character, however, is the proposed acquirement by Glyn, Mills, Currie Holt and Company of the famous old private banking business of Child and Company of Fleet -Street, i and it is not surprising that the proposal has already received Treasury consent, although it should be noted that the proposed acquirement is subject to sanction of the Court of Chancery as required by the will of the late Lord Jersey. A more suitable alliance it would be difficult to conceive, for it marks the amalgamation of our oldest banking institution with the greatest remaining private bank, and coming on the heels of the recent absorption of the private bank of Holts, it shows that Glyn's Bank are fully alive to the desirability of a suitable expansion of their activities, and now their interests in the West End are becoming almost as important as their long-established City connexion. * * * * To attempt even a brief description of the old-estab- lished business of Child's would be to give a risum4 of our banking history from its very beginnings. For the real origin of Child's Bank seems lost in the mists of antiquity, and a reference to the Banking Almanac simply shows that it was established " sometime before the year 1600." Its preserved records go back to the time of the Charles's, while coming to more recent times, it is generally accepted that " Child's " stands for the famous Tellson's of The Tale of Two Cities. I understand that no change in the conduct of Child's Bank-which will be known as Child's Branch of Glyn, Mills and Co.- will be involved in the proposed fusion, the management being carried on by Mr. Frederick W. Fane, who also becomes a managing partner in the combined institution. It is now reported in the City that when the amalgamation is actually carried through Messrs. Glyn, Mills, Currie Holt and Company will take the opportunity of shortening the title of their bank to Glyn, Mills and Company. Many will regret the disappearance of such household names as Holt and Currie, but these are the days of short and popular bank titles.
* * * A year ago I referred in these columns to the indications that under the Chairmanship of Lord Ebury, the outlook for shareholders in the Army and Navy Co-Operative Society was brightening. Undoubtedly, Lord Ebury is an enthusiast in the affairs of the company under his care, and the results are beginning to show. The dividend has been increased, so that, needless to say, there has been an advance in profits, while there is a large increase in the number of purchasing members. Not the least interesting feature of Lord Ebury's speech at the meeting on the 30th ult was the indication which it gave that he is alive, not only to the immediate affairs of his own institution, but to those great industrial and social problems which affect all our industrial activities from greatest to smallest. Business men will entirely endorse Lord Ebury's summing up of the situation when he expressed the opinion " that until some constitutional method of settling trade disputes is made a condition precedent to direct action by either side, industrial troubles will continue, and the much. needed impetus to the trade of the country will be retarded."
* * * * Apart from the Accident Departments, which in some cases have shown disappointing results, many of the leading Insurance companies have published satisfactory figures of late, while in the Life offices, quinquennial valuations have, for the most part, given good results. Two companies which may be cited as having just recently published favourable reports are the London Assurance Company and the Liverpool and London and Globe. The former recently announced a slightly higher dividend, while the net sum brought into Profit and Loss from the various department is about £35,000 more than in the previous year, after adding £100,000 to the Fire Fund, and £50,000 to the Marine Fund, while the various Accident Funds were raised from £156,000 to £205,000. In the Life Department new Assurances amounted to £1,320,000, while Life Funds advanced by £279,000 to £3,660,000, the gross rate of interest earned being £5 9s. 10d. per cent. on the Life Funds. In the case of the Liverpool and London and Globe Company, the report fully confirms the hopefulness expressed by the Chairman at the annual meeting a year ago as to the company having emerged successfully from the difficult period through which it had passed, and it is now evident that under the present management the improved organization of the company's operations in the United States is yielding good results. For the past year there was a large increase in the Fire Premium income, while the net trading loss of the previous year of £32,821 has been converted into a profit of £238,154. Similarly, -in the Marine department the deficit for the previous year has been transformed into a trading profit of £48,185. The quinquennial valuation has also yielded satisfactory results and the surplus at December .11st last was sufficient to maintain the reversionary bonus at £1 15s. per cent. per annum, while it has been decided to increase the Interim Bonus from £1 10s. per cent. per annum to
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