Airdrie Savings Bank
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| Savings Bank | |
| Industry | Finance and Insurance |
| Founded | 1835 |
| Founder | Dr William Clark (first President) |
| Headquarters | Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland |
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Key people
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| Products | Financial Services |
| Website | www |
Airdrie Savings Bank is a small commercial bank operation in the Lanarkshire area of Scotland. It runs 3 branches throughout this area, with its head office in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire. Total assets of the bank at 31 October 2013 were £158 million with a reported loss of £267,000. In January 2017, the bank announced it would close at the end of April of that year.
Airdrie Savings Bank is the only remaining independent Savings Bank in the UK. It operates on mutual principles, has no shareholders and is instead governed by a Board of Trustees, appointed to represent the interests of depositors and to ensure that the Bank is managed properly.
In addition to Airdrie, there are branches in Bellshill and Coatbridge.
The first true savings bank was established by Rev. Henry Duncan in the Dumfriesshire village of Ruthwell in 1810. Duncan’s model was rapidly adopted across Scotland, the rest of the UK and continental Europe. In 1924 the world’s first International Thrift Congress was held in Milan and there were representatives there from 350 institutions around the world.
Airdrie Savings Bank was instituted in 1835 by the efforts of four “founding fathers” – Rev. John Carslaw (a local church minister and strong advocate of the temperance movement); Dr William Clark (a retired doctor and member of a wealthy old Airdrie family); Rev. Andrew Ferrier (another local minister); and James Knox (a local hat and cap manufacturer). The first Board of Directors included several weavers, a blacksmith, a schoolmaster, a stonemason, a tailor and a salesman. Indeed, the blacksmith was Vice-President of the bank for over twenty years.
The first account was opened on 21 January 1835 with a deposit of £2 10s and by the end of 1835 a total of £355 had been deposited (over £31,000 today). The first branch was opened in the Session House of a local church but the church closed in 1841 and the bank moved to the shop premises of a tailor where it remained for twenty years before relocating a hat shop. Finally a purpose built independent office was established in the town in 1883. By 1885 the bank total deposits had risen to £20,000 (£2 million today) and within a decade this figure increased ten-fold to £200,000 (£20 million today). At the same time the number of customer more than quadrupled from 1100 to 4600. Deposits continued to double every decade such that by 1916 they had reached the £1 million mark (£87 million today).
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Wikipedia