Victorian Retirement Gift

The Illuminated Address is something I associate with the Victorian age. Invariably they were presented to valued and respected individuals upon their retirement or some other milestone event. The language employed tends to be rather flowery, certainly by modern day standards, and the decoration on the Address similarly so.

One recipient of such a laudatory gift was James Thompson Macky JP of Belmont Londonderry when he retired from the Agency of the Derry Branch of the Bank of Ireland in 1870. The subscribers to the gift included the following.

The Lord Bishop of Derry.

William McCorkell & Co

William Aiken & Son

Lord Claud Hamilton

The Mayor

Capt. Maturin

Herdman & Co

Capt. McClintock

Michael King

William Miles

Pitt Skipton

R. L. Ogilby

Robert Macrory

John Christy & Co.

Major James Beresford

David Gilles

Joseph Dysart

Maturin Baird

Archeson Lyle.

 

 

 

Ulster Bank Londonderry.

The Ulster Bank was established in 1836 but it was not until 1840 that it opened a branch in Londonderry. In 1876 the Bank, which by then had been registered as an unlimited liability Company, took a lease of lands at Waterloo Place. The branch would remain in this location for over one hundred years with one break caused by the explosive elevation of the original Victorian building. The lease granted to the Bank by the Irish Society was for a term of fifty one years from 29th September 1881 reserving a ground rent of seventy pounds and ten pence.

It would seem that the Bank's investment in the property taken in conjunction with the growth of its customer base caused it to give more permanence to its physical base within the City. As a consequence in 1891 it acquired the fee simple of the lands it had previously held under the 1876 lease together with lands occupied by a firm by the name of Wray & McClintock for the sum of two thousand pounds. By that time the Bank had adopted limited liability status, (1883).

Ultimately the Ulster Bank site at Waterloo place would include the lands comprised in a fee farm grant dated 26th September 1910, Irish Society to George McCool, (Painter) and those comprised in a fee farm dated 20th May 1913, Irish Society to William Alexander Frizell, (Chemist and Druggist.) I seem to remember that the Frizell lands were occupied by, "Lewis Fastravel," during the 1960's and early 1970's

That won't do nicely Ulster Bank

Yet again Ulster Bank and its parent, (RBS) have been having problems with their computer systems. Internet banking hasn't been accessible; credit and debit cards haven't been accepted and money could not be accessed from cash points.

 

Apologies have of course been forthcoming with some poor member of staff being wheeled out in what is becoming a very familiar damage limitation exercise. Even his lordship, ( well maybe the next birthday honours!) the Chief Executive has thought it appropriate to apologise.

 

Compensation has been promised for, "those left out of pocket due to these systems problems." The 2012 computer shutdown cost the Ulster Bank some £18 million in compensation payments to customers. The glitches may have been fixed or patched over more rapidly this time, but I suspect that the loss of confidence and even anger which this most recent debacle has engendered may result in consequential losses for Ulster Bank which far exceed that figure of £18 million.

 

It is rather disconcerting to hear RBS's Director of Customer Relations announce ,"that the Group still did not know the cause of the glitch." Will the problem reoccur?

 

Londonderry's Mr Mainwaring?

 

There is no doubt that banking has undergone remarkable changes over the last forty to fifty years. Interest rate swaps; currency swaps; commodity swaps; derivatives et alii would seem like the vocabulary of an extra terrestrial entity to the 1950's and 1960's bank manager. The recession has prompted calls for the return of old fashioned banking, but the traditional Bank manager as personified in the character of Mr Mainwaring will not return to our high streets. The Bank branch network is shrinking as people are prodded into using internet banking. Lending decisions are taken as the consequence of credit scores. Bank Managers now have very little autonomy. Knowing your account holders, their backgrounds and their families is no longer the important factor it once was. Banking is now a very objective exercise with little room for personal knowledge and other subjective imput.

 

It is nearly forty years since I opened a cheque account with the Ulster Bank. The branch manager who I saw for this momentous event was very definitely a traditional Bank Manager. Apart from the lack of a moustache he didn't look unlike Captain George Mainwaring. Berry Hackett, aka, "Laughing Boy," certainly had the same build as Mr Lowe. I can't remember when he was first appointed as manager, but I suspect that it was in the early 1960's. At that time there was a long polished mahogany banking counter in the Branch with the cashiers in cubicles, no security glass and no crocodile queuing. Very definitely another era, a time when Bank Managers were provided with a house by their Bank. If my memory serves the Ulster Bank had their manager's house on the Culmore Road.

 

 

Ulster Bank Computer Problems - Again!

I woke up this morning to hear that Ulster Bank Limited and its parent, RBS, had had overnight computer problems with customers being unable to withdraw money from ATMs and avail of telephone banking. This brought back memories of last summer's debacle when Ulster Bank customers' accounts were affected for weeks on end following on from a computer upgrade on 19th June.

One would have thought that the Bank would have put suitable backup systems in place to ensure that customers would not suffer down time again. It appears not. Thankfully however the present glitch appears to have been corrected within a few hours. It will however cause certain customers to question their loyalty to the Bank. Is the Bank's computer software prone to malfunction? To err may be human, but we are talking about machines here!

I checked my account with the Ulster Bank on line this morning. I was able to access it without any problem and unfortunately there were no strange seven figure credits.

Ulster Bank's Operating Loss Up £56 Million.

The Ulster Banks parent, RBS, published its annual results for the year ending 31st December 2012 this morning. As befits a multi billion pound Company the report extends to over three hundred pages. A physically impressive tome it may be, but the figures presented by Mr Hester hardly merit that adjective, - well maybe with a large dose of sarcasm. The, "Shreds," successor tries to see positive elements in the columns of figures. He points to the operating profit before impairment losses. But you do have to take account of impairment losses. They may, strictly speaking, be non recurring items, but they seem to be becoming a regular feature in the accounts. The bottom line, and isn't that what we should be concentrating on, shows a loss attributable to shareholders of £5,971,000,000.

The index to the report points us to page fifty for the constituent figures for Ulster Bank. Unfortunately they don't provide a little nugget of hope for the Group. Before impairment losses the operating profit has declined from £400m to £324m - a decline of 19%. What then of the infamous impairment losses? Well they have declined from £1384m to £1364m. Hoorah! However after you factor these into the figures we find that the Ulster Bank's operating loss has increased from £984m to £1040m. Hardly an A*performance. The fallout from the property crash is still affecting the figures.

Mr Hester is reported as saying that the Royal Bank Group will be ready for sale by 2015. Is he being overly optimistic? On the evidence of the present figures it might be difficult to share his confidence.

First Trust Bank Shrinks its Network

One could be forgiven for thinking that Northern Ireland's Banks are in a competition to see which of them can close the most branches.

In January the Bank of Ireland announced that it would be closing nine branches. Not to be outdone, First Trust Bank have now stated that they will be closing six branches by the end of June. Among the branches nominated for this programme of, "rationalisation," is that in Limavady. It is reported that the customers from that branch are to have their accounts transferred fourteen miles down the road to the Crescent Link branch of the Bank in Londonderry. That will be convenient! Despite the increase in online banking people do still need to go into their local branch. A twenty eight mile round trip is not an option for many people.

It must now be accepted that our Banks will no longer be providing province wide branch networks. The local bank manager is becoming an endangered species.

Shrinking Bank of Ireland Network

Another week. Another announcement from a Bank that it would be closing branches. This week it was the Bank of Ireland which wielded the cutting blade. It has decided that nine of its Northern Ireland branches need to be pruned. This will reduce its branch network here from 44 to 35, a twenty percent reduction. The closing branches apparently represent seven percent of the bank's business across Northern Ireland. Two of the branches facing closure are in Londonderry. The remaining branches are Ballyclare; Ballymoney; Carrickfergus; kilkeel; kilrea; Larne and Rathfriland.

I suppose I should declare an interest in this matter in that I do have an account with the Bank of Ireland although it is dormant.

Presumably the Bank of Ireland branches which are closing are the least profitable branches, but there are always going to be some offices which are less profitable than others. If one continues with a policy of closing the least profitable branches you end up with one branch. Is that what the Banks are aiming for? I suspect that it might be, They all want us to convert to Internet banking. They would like to kill off the cheque. They don't really want the small personal customer unless they can sell some product to him or her.

The closure of a rural bank branch is like the closure of a school or a post office. It hits at the very existence of the community. It reduces the independence and self sufficiency of the village or small town. In pure economic terms it may presently make sense for the Bank of Ireland and its ilk to close branches, but they are cutting away at what remains of their goodwill. It does seem rather inequitable that the steady branches should be closing because of the huge Bank losses engendered by the corporate divisions of our banks.

Santander Says No to Lodgement

I had a small lodgement to make today to the credit of a Cahoot account. Rather than do this at my own bank, which I have done on several occasions, I decided to do this at a branch of Santander. This seemed to me to be a wholly logical thing to do. Cahoot is after all a subsidiary of Santander. 

The clerk took the lodgement book willingly enough, but he then announced that the sort code was not one which his computer allowed. I pointed out the relationship between Cahoot and Santander. This did not seem to have any relevance.  He swivelled his screen towards me and jabbed at it, reiterating that he couldn't accept the lodgement. It's an on line account he announced. Tempted to say more I pointed out to him that I could not make a cash lodgement through a computer. I don't think he had thought about that, but he repeated that he could not accept the lodgement. He said that he ," thought," that the terms of the account may mean that lodgements had to made at the Post Office. He then rubbed a hand through his slightly grizzled coiffure.

Thanking him for his customer assistance I walked fifty yards to a branch of the Ulster Bank. The cashier was welcoming, personable and efficient. My lodgement was accepted with alacrity. 

Chelsea Out-Pensioners in Northern Ireland






Letter to the Manager, Belfast
Banking Company  5th Nov. 1844



We are all familiar with the picture of the Chelsea Pensioner in his, and very recently her, red tunic. Certainly in the past when all soldiers' pensions were administered by the Royal Hospital  these individuals should, strictly speaking, have been  referred to as In- Pensioners of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The vast majority of pensioned soldiers were not housed in the Hospital. These latter individuals were called Out-Pensioners.

To the left is a copy of a stampless entire dated 5th November 1844  from the Provincial Bank of Ireland, Ballymena  to the manager of the Ballymoney branch of the Belfast Banking Company, who at that time was a gentleman by the name of James Thompson. It appraises the manager that the Staff Officer for the district comprising Ballymoney would be calling with a draft for encashment so that he might pay the District's Out-Pensioners of Chelsea Hospital. This Staff Officer went by the name and style of Lieutenant John Moore Tittle. These pensions were paid to the pensioners on a monthly basis.