It takes decades for many of the UK’s clearing banks to package
products specifically aimed at businesses, large and small. Dedicated face to face staff are first made
available to PERSONAL
CUSTOMERS by Barclays from
the late 1970s, but it takes longer for a business or corporate equivalent to
emerge. In the case of banks who, like Martins and Barclays operate a decentralised service - with
district or local head offices – the trends in local business are
picked up and dealt with according to local need. Decentralisation is
a source of pride for decades, as top down decisions are by-passed by a team
of people who know the local area and its business needs. Until banking becomes more and more
streamlined, and the idea takes hold that wherever you are as a customer you
should be treated in the same way
as everyone else, there is no definable pattern of service or products
available to business customers. We
must look to Martins’ own business advertising for clues, where we find that
foreign trade is a pre-occupation for many years…
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Images
© 1939 Barclays (Left)
and
1945 © Martins Bank Archive (Above and below)

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The Second World War is over, and Martins raises patriotic good cheer with these fabulous 1945 newspaper
advertisements. Western Approaches shows the Mersey filled with boats busy
importing or exporting the goods that will make Britain great again.
Encouranging enterprise with these neat little adverts, Martins reminds
everyone that Britain might be in bits, but it is still very much “open for
business”. From here on, the importance of exporting goods will never be far
from the minds of governments, businesses and the banking sector. Whether through adverts like these,
initiatives such as National Productivity year, or the “I’m Backing Britain”
campaign of the late 1960s, the need to trade with the World is always being
pushed, and pushed hard. “The
World is your Market” was another of Martins Bank’s indispensible guides for
business that was available to customers and non-customers for a number of
years. See also AGRICULTURAL BANKING.

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The World is Your Market becomes
an important
annual publication
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The 1960s
brings a new urgency to exporting
with “National
Productivity Year” (1963)
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Images © Martins Bank Archive Collection

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, the lateTeresa
Gorman (30/09/1931-28/08/2015) recalls in her autobiography that it was a
1966 Martins advertisement (below) 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.

1965 onwards: Starting or building a
business
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Images © Martins Bank Archive
Collection

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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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Image © Martins Bank Archive
Collection
Image © Barclays Ref 0025/0658/0005
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As the swinging sixties progress, EXPORTS are key both to the success of
business AND banking. The
World Is Your Market, becomes another success story for Martins Bank’s
Information Department. It 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 perhaps 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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