War and payment innovation: the adoption of paper currency in Britain

David Rule

Digital currencies and stablecoins have increased interest in how new forms of money are adopted. Looking to three episodes from the 1690s to the First World War, this post considers how paper currency replaced coin in Britain, an historical example of adoption of new money. The underlying drivers were not technological changes but wars, leading to actual or feared shortages of coin, and a need to take specie out of internal circulation in order to meet overseas outflows. The public authorities took the initiative and created trust successfully in the new money. This is the first of a series of planned posts by Bank staff on past payment innovations.

Continue reading →

10 Years after Northern Rock – is the UK more or less likely to see another bank run?

Stephen Clarke

(Northern Rock image – Lee Jordan – Flickr, reproduced from wikimedia commons under CCA licence)

Ten years ago this month, queues of people started to form early in the morning outside Northern Rock branches across the UK, to withdraw their money out of fear that their bank would soon collapse. As the day wore on panic spread, and the run continued until when the government stepped in to guarantee all Northern Rock deposits. It was the UK’s first retail bank run since the 19^th century and one of the first symptoms of the global financial crisis. This anniversary is an appropriate time to reflect on those events, but also to look forward and assess how things have moved on in the last decade, and whether something similar could ever happen again.

Continue reading “10 Years after Northern Rock – is the UK more or less likely to see another bank run?” →

Who withdraws money from distressed banks?

Benjamin Guin, Martin Brown and Stefan Morkoetter

The recently proposed liquidity regulations for banks under Basel III emphasize the importance of deposit insurance and well-established customer relationships for the stability of bank funding. However, little is known about which clients withdraw their deposits from distressed banks. New survey data covering the behaviour of households in Switzerland during the 2007-2009 crisis suggest that well-established customer relationships are indeed crucial for mitigating withdrawal risk when a bank is in distress.

Continue reading “Who withdraws money from distressed banks?” →