British Trade Bank

The Financial Facilities for Trade Committee of 1916, the Faringdon Committee, consisted predominantly of senior bankers from a range of banking institutions. It recommended the creation of a British Trade Bank. There were objections in some quarters about the use of the term “Bank” as the proposed institution would mainly undertake industrial finance, which was a different class of business from banking as generally understood in Britain. It therefore became the British Trade Corporation. It had a mixed reception. Despite some strong criticism in Parliament, it received a Royal Charter of Incorporation on 21 April 1917.