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National Productivity Year and beyond…
 1963 is an exciting year for Martins Bank and its
Staff. Not only does the Bank celebrate 400 years of banking activity in Lombard
Street, it opens a number of new branches, and continues to demonstrate its
commitment to the automation of Branch accounting. The British Economy is flagging a little
in 1963, and the Government conjures up “National Productivity Year”, an
initiative that sounds as if it would be more at home in Soviet Russia than
in a major Western capitalist economy.
We should remember that at this time there are many more nationalised
concerns than we have in the twenty-first century, electricity, gas, car production,
telephone services and rail travel are all “provided” by the British
Government. National Productivity Year is therefore something of a novelty,
as entrepreneurs big and small are encouraged to establish trade at home and
abroad and thereby boost Britain’s financial standing. Martins Bank seizes the opportunity to sell
its services to business, and this is nowhere more apparent than in its
newspaper advertising. The Bank never
quite shakes off the preferred image it has for someone setting up a business
– a MAN (of course) in a suit and tie (naturally), and sporting a bowler hat
(this was a time when most men wore hats in the street to define their social
status). Martins policy is not
intentionally misogynistic, and former Member of Parliament Teresa Gorman
recalls in her autobiography that it was a 1966 Martins advertisement (shown
here, right) depicting a man wearing a bowler hat and climbing a ladder, that
attracted her to the Bank, where she successfully raised the funds she needed
to set up her own business.
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1966: Bowler Hats!
Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collection
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Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collection 
Image © Barclays Ref 0025/0658/0005
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The introduction by
the eleven clearing Banks of the Credit Clearing system in 1962 paves the way
for smoother business transactions, and the ability to pay employees directly
into their own Bank Accounts. Martins Bank’s Advertising is based around the
success of its Information Department, whose perhaps unrivalled collective
knowledge produces literature that is of practical help to those already in
business and those who are just starting up.
The bank can also take pride in its decentralised structure, with
local head offices around the country able to make important decisions
without keeping the customer waiting.
Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collection
Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collection
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 As the swinging sixties arrive, EXPORTING becomes key both to the success of
business AND banking. From
1960, The World Is Your Market, a guide to overseas trading is another
success story for Martins Bank’s Information Department. This small paperbacked book is an ambitious
publication, which sets out to provide every possible detail to help any
British Business owner understand the potential of overseas trade, and the
ease with which it can be conducted with Martins at your side. So profound is it all, that in the
advertisement above, the businessman seems to have removed his glasses for a
moment of deep reflection!!! The front
cover of The World is Your Market even features in the pages of Martins
Bank’s Annual Report and Accounts for 1960, which shows the commitment the
Bank has made to helping businesses succeed at home and abroad. Backed by the
expertise of Martins Overseas Branches at Liverpool Manchester and London,
The World is Your Market continues to be a successful publication right up to
the merger with Barclays…
So much for small to
medium business – Martins Bank also looks after the banking needs of some
VERY large business concerns, and we look in detail at this, and at how it
leads to the merger with Barclays in our feature CORPORATE
BANKING. We
also examine Barclays’ own proposals for a merger with Martins AND Lloyds
Bank, and also at what might have been if Martins Bank had survived into the
twenty-first Century.
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