Company type | Joint-stock |
---|---|
Industry | Banking |
Founded | 10 March 1834 |
Defunct | 1 January 1970 |
Fate | Merger with National Provincial Bank |
Successor | National Westminster Bank |
Headquarters | 41 Lothbury, London EC2 |
Subsidiaries | Ulster Bank Limited |
Westminster Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales. It was created in 1834 as the London and Westminster Bank. It merged with the London and County Bank in 1909, after which it renamed itself the London County and Westminster Bank,[1] then acquired the former business of Birkbeck Bank in 1911, Ulster Bank in 1917, and Parr's Bank in 1918, following which it changed its name again to London County Westminster and Parrs. It shortened its name to Westminster Bank in 1923.
Following that transformative sequence of acquisitions, Westminster Bank was the fifth-largest bank in England, thus one of the so-called Big Five together with Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Midland Bank, and National Provincial Bank. In 1968 it announced its merger with National Provincial to form the National Westminster Bank, which was completed on 1 January 1970.