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Die DZ Bank AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main (Eigenschreibweise DZ BANK) mit Sitz in Frankfurt am Main ist innerhalb des genossenschaftlichen Finanzsektors als Zentralinstitut für alle rund 800 deutschen Kreditgenossenschaften zuständig. Darüber hinaus ist die DZ Bank Geschäftsbank für Firmenkunden sowie für Institutionelle aus dem In- und Ausland. Am 1. August 2016 fusionierte sie mit der in Düsseldorf ansässigen WGZ Bank, bisher Zentralbank für rund 200 Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken im Rheinland sowie in Westfalen.[3] Gemäß der Aufstellung der größten Banken für das Jahr 2020 ist die DZ Bank nach Bilanzsumme die zweitgrößte Bank in Deutschland.
(Quelle : Wikipedia)
DZ Bank AG Deutsche Zentral-Genossenschaftsbank, Frankfurt am Main (spelling DZ BANK), based in Frankfurt am Main, is the central institution responsible for all around 800 German credit unions within the cooperative financial sector. In addition, DZ Bank is a commercial bank for corporate customers as well as for institutional clients from Germany and abroad. On August 1, 2016, it merged with the Düsseldorf-based WGZ Bank, previously the central bank for around 200 Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks in the Rhineland and Westphalia. [3] According to the list of the largest banks for 2020, DZ Bank is the second largest bank in Germany in terms of total assets.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Website : roquesgallery-photography.co/
The National Saving And Trust Company is a historic bank building located at the corner of New York Avenue and 15th Street, NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. It has also been known as the National Safe Deposit Company and the National Safe Deposit Savings and Trust Company.
It was designed by architect James H. Windrim and built in 1888. The Queen Anne Style building is constructed in red brick, and elaborately detailed with copper and terra cotta.
It is currently occupied by a branch of SunTrust Banks, based in Atlanta, Georgia.
This is a building of a well-known German bank. Based on the color can certainly recognize which credit institution is meant.
Located at no. 93 State Street.
"Institution for Savings in Newburyport and Its Vicinity is a bank based in Newburyport, Massachusetts. It has 15 branches, all of which are in Essex County, Massachusetts. It is a mutual organization.
Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mooring, winter storage, and maintenance of recreational boats, motor and sail, still contribute a large part of the city's income. A Coast Guard station oversees boating activity, especially in the sometimes dangerous tidal currents of the Merrimack River.
At the edge of the Newbury Marshes, delineating Newburyport to the south, an industrial park provides a wide range of jobs. Newburyport is on a major north-south highway, Interstate 95. The outer circumferential highway of Boston, Interstate 495, passes nearby in Amesbury. The Newburyport Turnpike (U.S. Route 1) still traverses Newburyport on its way north. The Newburyport/Rockport MBTA commuter rail from Boston's North Station terminates in Newburyport. The earlier Boston and Maine Railroad leading farther north was discontinued, but a portion of it has been converted into a recreation trail." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
The Suntrust Bank Building, formerly the National Savings and Trust Company Building, at the corner of 15th Street and new York Avenue, was constructed in 1888 to the design of architect James T. Windrim. A series of additions were made by various architects in 1916, 1925, and 1985.
It was designed by architect James H. Windrim and built in 1888. The Queen Anne Style building is constructed in red brick, and elaborately detailed with copper and terra cotta.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972, and is a contributing property to the Fifteenth Street Financial Historic District.
It is currently occupied by a branch of SunTrust Banks, based in Atlanta, Georgia. SunTrust took ownership of the structure when it acquired Crestar Bank, which had previously taken control of the National Savings and Trust Company.
A Northumbria Police Vauxhall Astra 24/7 response car, is pictured on patrol in Newcastle City Centre. This has received new front Police wording since being delivered from the workshops.
Roof Code: 10/UNA
Update 05/12: Confirmed Forth Banks based.
Further update 05/10/2023: vehicle now decomissioned & scrapped from fleet.
- This Flickr photostream and its content are copyright of ©Cobalt271 2016. All rights reserved.
Lego bank, based on the Kensington Bank in Philadelphia by Frank Furness. A photo of the real building is here: www.flickr.com/photos/repowers/119654607/in/set-720575940...
I've now published a page on the history of Allied Irish Banks:
bankingmergers.blogspot.com/2011/01/ireland-bank-mergers-...
Despite the name of the banks, these are Northern Irish (British) Pound banknotes rather than Irish Pound (Punt) banknote.
So why some of Northern Ireland's currency is issued by Ireland's banks?
2 simple answers:
1) Ireland's banks were largely established long before the 1922 independence and split into the North and South.
2) Britain and its porvinces and colonies have a tradition of allowing commercial banks (rather than Central banks) to issue banknotes.
For a more detailed explanation, read on...
Allied Irish Banks (yes, plural) was created in 1966 when the Provincial Bank of Ireland, Royal Bank of Ireland and Munster & Leinster merged.
Look closely at the Provincial Bank of Ireland £ GBP 1 banknote and you may be surprised to see that it was established in London in 1825 and not in Dublin. Those were the days when Britain ruled Ireland and London controlled Ireland's economy and commerce. After Ireland gained independence in 1922, the three banks became Irish-based and registered eventually.
Even though Provincial Bank has been part of Allied Irish since 1966, it continued to issue Northern Irish banknotes under its own name well into the 1970s.
So why banks based in the Irish Republic still issue Northern Ireland's paper currency today? It's something to do with British banking history. When Bank of England was founded in 1694 and began issuing Britain's banknotes, there was no notion of a Central Bank or government bank, Bank of England itself was established as a commercial bank with shareholders.
In 1695, Bank of Scotland began operations under similar arrangements (commercial bank with shareholders and given the authority to issue banknotes). The same thing happened to Ireland's banks when they were founded by London's financiers from the 1780s onward.
Also, when Ireland's banks were founded, Ireland was a single province under British rule so the notion of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland did not exist. When Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922, which also saw the Northeastern counties choosing to stay with Britain, banks from both sides of the border simply continued to operate in each other's territory, which explained why Dublin-based banks can still issue Northern Irish Pound banknotes today.
In Ireland itself, it was the Central Bank of Ireland that issued the Irish Punt (Pound) until the Euro was adopted.
In the 1920s, when Bank of England became a government agency and was given the sole right to issue the British (English) paper currency, the Scottish and Irish banks remained private-sector banks and were not stripped of their rights to issue the Scottish Pound and Northern Irish Pound banknotes. Today, 3 Scottish banks and 4 Irish (or Northern Irish) banks are responsible for the Scottish Pound and Northern Irish Pound issue. Confusing eh?
Shaw Lane, in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Halifax is not mentioned in the Domesday Book, and evidence of the early settlement is indefinite. By the 12th century the township had become the religious centre of the vast parish of Halifax, which extended from Brighouse in the east to Heptonstall in the west. Halifax Minster, parts of which date from the 12th century is dedicated to St John the Baptist. The minster's first organist, in 1766, was William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus. The coat of arms of Halifax include the chequers from the original coat of arms of the Earls Warenne, who held the town during Norman times.
Halifax was notorious for its gibbet, an early form of guillotine used to execute criminals by decapitation, that was last used in 1650. A replica has been erected on the original site in Gibbet Street. Its original blade is on display at Bankfield Museum. Punishment in Halifax was notoriously harsh, as remembered in the Beggar's Litany by John Taylor (1580–1654), a prayer whose text included "From Hull, from Halifax, from Hell, ‘tis thus, From all these three, Good Lord deliver us.".
The town's 19th century wealth came from the cotton, wool and carpet industries and like most other Yorkshire towns it had a large number of weaving mills many of which have been lost or converted to alternate use.
In November 1938, in an incident of mass hysteria, many residents believed a serial killer, the Halifax Slasher, was on the loose. Scotland Yard concluded there were no attacks after several locals admitted they had inflicted wounds on themselves.
Halifax plc started as a building society, the Halifax Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society, in the town in 1853. Today the bank operates as a trading name of HBOS, part of the Lloyds Banking Group. Yorkshire Bank, based in Leeds and known as the West Riding Penny Savings Bank, was established on 1 May 1859 by Colonel Edward Akroyd of Halifax.
Information Source:
>>UNITED KINGDOM WINS THE 80's& 90's TELEVSION PROJECT<<
Final Project Tally:
U.K. 11
U.S. 10
AUS 4
BEST OPENING/CLOSING TITLE SEQUENCE (Top 5)
Drama (United Kingdom)
Thames Television for the ITV network:
September 1989 - December 1990
Capital City is arguably the finest example of a quality Television production from the 80's & 90's. Capital City was focused on the professional and personal lives of a group of investment bankers working in the dealing room at Shane Longman, a fictional international bank based in the City of London. The 23-episode series was produced by Euston Films and dealt with several mature storylines. It is estimated that Euston Films spent more than US$10 million to produce the first 13 episodes.
The show was a flagship series for ITV at the time. The broadcaster, Thames Television, spent an estimated £500,000 to run newspaper and billboard advertisements to promote the series' launch which at the time was believed to be the largest advertising spend for a programme in the history of ITV. Full-page advertisements were taken in six national newspapers including The Financial Times, The Times and The Independent. The ads promoted the Shane Longman "brand", rather than "Capital City", and featured images of cast members in character.
Season 1 Finale: End Credits
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA0XVPpEFJQ
Season 2 Finale: End Credits
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nORCGLYTuq4&t=69s
The series was created by Andrew Maclear, who also wrote the 1989 movie Dealers; the film's dealing room set, which reportedly cost £1,000,000 to construct, was retained for use in "Capital City". The dealing room equipment was provided by Reuters Limited. Exterior scenes were shot throughout London and landmarks such as Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, Tower Bridge, River Thames and St Paul's Cathedral appeared as backdrops.
Capital City is very much a product of the late 1980s, before the market shifted and views towards traders became less favourable. Most of the characters in Capital City portrayed City bankers in a generally positive manner. The primary characters come across as likeable and possessed a moral and/or social conscience. Jason Isaacs is perhaps the most well known actor from the show, going on to have a successful Hollywood career.
Capital City with Jason Isaacs
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGVAskVJPIY
The series was also transmitted in Australia by ABC Television and on selected public television stations in the United States. The complete series of 23 episodes have been released on DVD.
Beginning Intro:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0njnUeUPtis
DISCLAIMER:_____________________________________
*Due to the severe scope of the topic, this project was narrowed down to include only English speaking material from three geographical areas = U.K., U.S., & Australia.
*I, the author generating this project, recognize that there exists other quality material that won't be represented here given the limited nature of this project.
*The inclusion of shows & people highlighted in this project are a subjective choice from the author based on previous personal exposure and biases of personal interest.
*The supporting information in the description is my best attempt at referencing all valid information, including pertinent dates and owners of the originating material.
________________________________________________
Up Next: Cheap Film Camera Challenge on Expired Kodak 35mm film
"The National Savings and Trust Company is a historic bank building located at the corner of New York Avenue and 15th Street, NW in Downtown Washington, D.C. It has also been known as the National Safe Deposit Company and the National Safe Deposit Savings and Trust Company.
It was designed by architect James H. Windrim and built in 1888. The Queen Anne Style building is constructed in red brick, and elaborately detailed with copper and terra cotta.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1972, and is a contributing property to the Fifteenth Street Financial Historic District.
It is currently occupied by a branch of SunTrust Banks, based in Atlanta, Georgia. SunTrust took ownership of the structure when it acquired Crestar Bank, which had previously taken control of the National Savings and Trust Company.
Downtown is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., as well as a colloquial name for the central business district in the northwest quadrant of the city. It is the fourth largest central business district in the United States. Historically, the Downtown has been defined as an area east of 16th Street NW, north of the National Mall and United States Capitol, and south of Massachusetts Avenue, including the Penn Quarter. However, the city says that most residents, workers, and visitors think of Downtown in a broader sense—including areas as far north as Dupont Circle, the Golden Triangle, as far west as Foggy Bottom, and as far east as Capitol Hill. A small portion of this area is known as the Downtown Historic District and was listed on the NRHP in 2001.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia, also known as just Washington or simply D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located on the east bank of the Potomac River, which forms its southwestern and southern border with the U.S. state of Virginia, and it shares a land border with the U.S. state of Maryland on its other sides. The city was named for George Washington, a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, and the federal district is named after Columbia, the female personification of the nation. As the seat of the U.S. federal government and several international organizations, the city is an important world political capital. It is one of the most visited cities in the U.S. with over 20 million annual visitors as of 2016.
The U.S. Constitution provides for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress; the district is not a part of any U.S. state (nor is it one itself). The signing of the Residence Act on July 16, 1790, approved the creation of the capital district located along the Potomac River near the country's East Coast. The City of Washington was founded in 1791, and Congress held its first session there in 1800. In 1801, the territory, formerly part of Maryland and Virginia (including the settlements of Georgetown and Alexandria), officially became recognized as the federal district. In 1846, Congress returned the land originally ceded by Virginia, including the city of Alexandria; in 1871, it created a single municipal government for the remaining portion of the district. There have been efforts to make the city into a state since the 1880s, a movement that has gained momentum in recent years, and a statehood bill passed the House of Representatives in 2021.
The city is divided into quadrants centered on the Capitol, and there are as many as 131 neighborhoods. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 689,545, which makes it the 23rd most populous city in the U.S. as of 2020, the third most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and gives it a population larger than that of two U.S. states: Wyoming and Vermont. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the city's daytime population to more than one million during the workweek. Washington's metropolitan area, the country's sixth largest (including parts of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia), had a 2020 estimated population of 6.3 million residents; and over 54 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of the District.
The three branches of the U.S. federal government are centered in the district: Congress (legislative), the president (executive), and the Supreme Court (judicial). Washington is home to many national monuments and museums, primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 177 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many international organizations, trade unions, non-profits, lobbying groups, and professional associations, including the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization of American States, AARP, the National Geographic Society, the American Red Cross, and others.
A locally elected mayor and a 13-member council have governed the district since 1973. Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. The District of Columbia does not have representation in Congress, although D.C. residents elect a single at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives who has no vote. District voters choose three presidential electors in accordance with the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.
Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa (BBK) (Basque for 'Bilbao Biscay Savings Bank') is a Spanish savings bank based in the province of Biscay in the Basque Country, Spain. Its full name is Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa, Aurrezki Kutxa eta Bahitetxea (in Spanish Caja Bilbao Vizcaya, Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad). It was formed in 1990 when the Caja de Ahorros Municipal de Bilbao and the Bizkaiko Aurrezki Kutxa-Caja de Ahorros Vizcaína were merged. The company headquarters are in Bilbao. On 1 January 2012 it merged with other Basque financial entities (a "loose merger"), Kutxa and Caja Vital Kutxa, to form Kutxabank.
BBK won a bid to take over CajaSur on July 16, 2010. The transaction created the 7th largest financial institution of Spain. (Source: wikipedia).
Public Clocks by Arjan Richter
Overview of Charters Towers History.
Until around 1900 this was the second largest city in QLD! It called itself “The World” and with good reason. The gold finds here lasted a good 40 years. The town had a long period of wealth and growth. And the town took itself to the world which was a first for any mining centre in Australia and for any city apart from the state capital cities. Because of the wealth in the town share brokers started businesses there in the early 1880s. They agreed in 1885 to form a group and establish a stock exchange – the only one in Australia that has ever existed outside of a capital city. Then in 1886 they took the city to the world- at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition in London. The set up a display of mining and ore crushing and they accepted £1 shares in various mining companies that operated in the town. It was a great success. One company is an example- Day Dawn Block and Wyndham- they received almost £500,000 in paid up shares to finance their future mining work! This exhibition put Charters Towers on the world map and was the first time London investors invested directly in Australian mines rather than through a London based share broking company or finance company. Some of the companies were duds but most were not. The peak gold yields from Charters Towers did not come until 1899 but these yields would not have occurred without the London finance for the deep shafts that were needed to reach to gold. The influx of money into the town transformed the place. The wooden structures, many dating from 1872 the time of the original gold finds were replaced with lavish and imposing stone and brick structures. The main street was rebuilt. Grand houses were built by the successful miners and the period from 1886-1893 was a boom building period. Prosperity was assisted by the development of the new cyanide gold processing works which produced even more gold for the miners and investors. The new cyanide works opened in Charters Towers in 1892. Fortunately we can still see some of this faded glory in Charters Towers today. But in the 1890s it was the best place to live in QLD outside of Brisbane. Thus it was not surprising that the Northern Mining Register newspaper wrote in 1897 that:
Most mining in Charters Towers ceased around 1912.
Discovery and Early Establishment of Charters Towers.
Hugh Mosman, whom we have heard of before on this tour, George Clarke, John Fraser and their Aboriginal horse boy called Jupiter Mosman were prospecting near Ravenswood in December 1871 when they found the first gold in the region. They registered their find as Charters Towers after Mr Charters the Gold Commissioner of the day and Towers because of the conical shaped stone hills (tors) near the site which looked like towers. A gold rushed quickly followed in 1872 with the birth of the town. Mosman and his mates discovered 10 gold reefs. Early finds were of alluvial gold but soon deep shafts were needed to extract the ore and companies were formed with money and capital to undertake this work. British investment led to the transformation of the canvas and wooden town into a fine stone metropolis occurred after 1886 as explained above. The gold at Charters Towers was the major find in QLD and an important find for Australia. By the end of 1878 there were 12 mills processing ore in the town. The Venus Battery works which started operations in 1872 operated right through until 1972. For most of the period from the mid 1870s up to 1906 gold exports from QLD exceeded those of the other major QLD export - wool. QLD certainly had much more gold than NSW but much less than Victoria although not all QLD gold came from Charters Towers. During its peak years over 200,000 ounces of gold a year were mined in Charters Towers. Although the mining companies closed down operations in 1912 individual miners continued working the field right up to World War Two and the old cyanide ore dumps from the battery works have been reworked since then.
250 University Avenue (at Queen Street West), the former Bank of Canada Building. It housed the Toronto offices of Canada's Central Bank (based in the capital city of Ottawa).
It was built in 1957–1958 with vaults for gold and cash for banks in the Greater Toronto Area.
Midtown Manhattan, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
When the Fifth Avenue office of the Manufacturers Trust Company opened in October 1954, bank officials claimed it was “unlike any other financial institution in this country or abroad.” A major example of mid-20th century modernism, 510 Fifth Avenue was designated a New York City Landmark in 1997 and is one of Manhattan’s most transparent structures, revealing two elegantly spacious banking floors that were planned to be as prominent to passing pedestrians as the glass-and-aluminum exterior. As with many projects designed by the architectural firm Skidmore Owings & Merrill , it was a collaborative effort, requiring the talent and expertise of various staff members. Gordon Bunshaft was the partner in charge of the building’s innovative design, assisted by Patricia W. Swan and Roy O. Allen. At the time, SOM did not have an interior design division and Eleanor H. Le Maire was responsible for the interiors, which were praised for being in “accord with the directness and purity of the architecture.”
Though interior components and artworks by sculptor Harry Bertoia were recently removed, many distinctive elements remain. On Fifth Avenue, for instance, the celebrated circular stainless steel vault door designed by Henry Dreyfuss in collaboration with engineers at the Mosler Safe Company is visible, as well as most of the white marble piers and the vast luminous ceilings that were intended to minimize glare and shadow. It was one of SOM’s first and most ambitious projects to make use of this lighting technology, and though modified, may be the earliest example to survive in New York City.
Because the 7,000 square-foot second floor, sometimes called a mezzanine, is recessed from the street, it appears to float, creating the impression that both levels occupy a single, monumental space. Other notable historic features include the twin escalators, which were originally freestanding, as well as the 43rd Street lobby at the west end of the building, which, like the rear wall of the second floor, displays handsome sets of elevator doors set into polished grey marble walls. By conceiving this building and its minimalist interiors as a unified architectural statement, SOM not only produced one of Fifth Avenue’s most memorable structures but it created a work that influenced the course of American bank design.
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
When the Fifth Avenue office of the Manufacturers Trust Company opened in October 1954, the facade was praised by critics and journalists for providing “an open view of all of the banking operations from the street and from the neighboring office buildings.” At the time, it was arguably Manhattan’s single most transparent structure; revealing the elegantly spacious banking floors that were as prominent as the glass-and-aluminum exterior. Writing in Art Digest, architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable observed:
In a direct reversal of the traditional idea of architecture, which places its emphasis on the nature of heavy, containing masonry, the interiors become the substance of the building itself, once light and glass have effectively dematerialized the outer walls.
The interior components designed by Eleanor H. Le Maire and two sculptures by Harry Bertoia have been removed but many striking elements remain, including the cantilevered second floor with its 18-foot-high ceiling and open plan, the vast luminous ceilings, white marble piers, twin escalators, and the 43rd Street lobby.
Manufacturers Trust Company
The Mechanics Bank of Williamsburgh, the parent organization of the Manufacturers Trust Company, was organized in 1853 to serve the business community in Brooklyn’s 14th Ward. In 1865, it reorganized as a national bank under the name Manufacturers National Bank of New York, with offices in lower Manhattan. Following financial reversals in 1867, the bank returned to Brooklyn. After merging with the Citizens Trust Company in 1914, the bank became known as the Manufacturers-Citizens Trust Company, and later, in 1915, the Manufacturers Trust Company. During the next decade, the Manufacturers Trust Company acquired many small banks in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The New York Times summarized the bank’s success in 1925:
The trust company has figured in one of the fastest expansions in the city’s
history. Starting from small beginnings in Brooklyn, it has in the last decade
crossed to Manhattan and now rates as among the city’s largest banks.
Based at 55 Broad Street , the Manufacturers Trust Company would pioneer many novel retail services in the late 1930s and 1940s, including personal loans, construction loans, property improvement loans, special checking accounts, and industrial credit for manufacturers. With 67 branches by 1944, the bank’s annual report noted optimistically, that “the rapid growth of many of our offices, furthered by the various new services we are extending to our customers and by special services incident to the war effort, will soon call for additional expansion of quarters.”
The Fifth Avenue Branch
One of the bank’s busiest branches was located in the base of 513 Fifth Avenue , at the southeast corner of West 43rd Street. Described as “second only to the Head Office in the amount and importance of its business,” the branch moved here in the 1920s and was soon operating at full capacity. Despite approaching “its limit” in the 1930s, it continued to accept new accounts, with approximately 17,500 depositors by 1944.
To meet growing customer demand, steps were taken to open a much larger office. In 1941, the bank began negotiations with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York to lease a site occupied by two structures at the southwest corner of 43rd Street: a converted four-story dwelling at 508 Fifth Avenue, and the eight-story Ziegler Building at 510-514 Fifth Avenue. Both parcels were part of a larger zoning lot that extended south to 42nd Street, and development rights from these parcels were used to build a 59-story tower at 500 Fifth Avenue . In consequence, any building erected on this corner could not exceed 68 feet – the height of 508 Fifth Avenue. Though wartime restrictions on building supplies created delays, in October 1944 Mutual Life agreed to clear the site and construct an $850,000 structure based on specifications proposed by the Manufacturers Trust Company. The State Banking Department approved the relocation of the branch in December 1944.
Walker & Gillette was selected as architect. This prominent firm designed a great number of bank buildings, including offices for the National City Bank of New York at 415 Broadway , East River Savings Bank, at 743 Amsterdam Avenue and 26 Cortlandt Street . Gillette attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts and most of the firm’s work was neo-classical, or in later years, a streamlined variant of the Art Deco style. In 1944, they filed plans for a monumental limestone structure with a curved corner in what was described as the “Federal Classic style,” but due to continued government restrictions and difficulties with tenants the project was canceled in 1948. Though the successor firm, Walker & Poor, prepared a substantially modified design with a multi-story glass curtain wall facing 43rd Street in 1951, construction did not proceed due to subsequent restrictions associated with the Korean War. By the time these restrictions were lifted in July 1952, Walker & Poor had been discharged. Not only had there been disagreement over billing, but a new architectural climate had begun to emerge, one in which Skidmore Owings & Merrill became a leading firm.
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Few firms have been as closely associated with the development and evolution of 20thcentury modern architecture as SOM. Founded by Louis Skidmore, Sr. and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago in 1936, Skidmore opened the New York office in 1937. John O. Merrill , an architectural engineer, joined the firm as a limited partner in 1939. The first structures Skidmore and Owings completed in New York City were part of the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair: the Venezuela Pavilion, the Gas Industries exhibit, and the Continental Baking-Wonder Bread exhibit. Executed with partial walls of transparent glass, these temporary structures anticipated the minimalist aesthetic – commonly known as the International Style – at which SOM excelled.
Skidmore served on the advisory board of the bank’s 57th Street branch and was close friends with Horace C. Flanigan , who became the bank’s president in September 1951. According to Gordon Bunshaft , the SOM partner who was in charge of the design, Manufacturers Trust first approached them about their plans in 1953 at the recommendation of Lou Crandall, president of the George A. Fuller Construction Company, who was also a member of the bank’s board of trustees. At Lever House , one of Bunshaft’s most celebrated early office building designs, Fuller acted as general contractor. In his role as advisor, Bunshaft told the bank that “it would be unwise to try to save a small amount of money on engineering fees when a better building might result from a fresh start.”
Flanigan approached SOM with three primary goals. Because the current Fifth Avenue branch was overcrowded, he wanted a building that could serve a high volume of retail and commercial clients. It was also important that the structure have an “inviting look,” in keeping with the bank’s emphasis on customer service, as epitomized in the advertising slogan “Come See Us, You’ll Be Very Welcome.” Most interesting, perhaps, was the requirement that it be adaptable for another use. During the 1930s, Flanigan recalled being disturbed by the sight of abandoned branches in Detroit, neo-classical structures that could not attract tenants due to the prohibitive cost of remodeling. “What branch banking needed,” he claimed, “was an easily convertible type of branch building.” In response, SOM pioneered a new image and building type, one in which familiar materials, ornament, and symbolism traditionally associated with banking were purposely ignored.
As with most SOM projects, the Fifth Avenue office was a collaborative effort, requiring the talent and expertise of various staff members. Owings later recalled:
Skid, sensing the opportunity for a masterpiece, conceived the idea of a competition among our young and eager designers. Here was an opportunity to shake up the conventional architects’ approaches to banking. They were encouraged to come up with whatever popped into their heads, and the history and tradition of banking be damned.
Charles Evans Hughes III placed first with a sketch that contained many elements that were incorporated into the final design. Though Walker & Poor proposed a glass elevation for 43rd Street, Hughes wanted a glass-walled structure in which the vault – “the central drama of the scheme” – would be visible from the street.
Under Bunshaft and the project’s administrative partner William S Brown , Hughes’ vision was refined, creating a cage-like transparent structure. Patricia W. Swan
headed the design team, working with Bunshaft, as well as Roy O. Allen and Alan Labie, who oversaw construction and served as job captain. At the time, there were relatively few women in the field and she remembered being the third hired by SOM, following Natalie De Blois. A graduate of Columbia University , Swan’s father, G. Dewey Swan, was an architect and friend of Skidmore. She was promoted to associate in 1956 and associate partner in 1970. Swan later worked in SOM’s San Francisco and Denver offices, retiring in 1987.
Eleanor H. Le Maire was responsible for the handsome interiors. At the time, SOM did not have an interior design division and she was identified as a “consultant.” Born in Berkeley, Le Maire studied at the University of California and Columbia University and began her career as a stylist in the home furnishings department of Bullocks Wilshire, a recently-opened department store in Los Angeles. Le Maire specialized in hotel interiors and retail spaces; her New York City clients included Macy’s Department Store, the New Yorker Hotel, and the New York Savings Bank. She employed a staff of fifty in the 1950s and in subsequent years would oversee the redesign of many of the bank’s branches. At 510 Fifth Avenue, Le Maire designed the furnishings and selected the color scheme, which Interiors magazine said was in “accord with the directness and purity of the architecture.”
In early photographs, both banking floors were open and uncluttered. Passing through the glazed vestibule, customers experienced an uninterrupted view of the first floor, with 11-foot tall ceilings, free-standing writing desks, and an L-shaped counter along the south and west walls where tellers performed such routine transactions as check cashing. To enhance the sense of spaciousness, the ebony wood counters had sleek white marble tops and no security grilles. There was little else to break up the view and the walls behind the counters were clearly visible. The south wall was polished black granite and the west wall was painted “sky blue.”
Immediately inside the entrance closest to Fifth Avenue are the escalators to the second floor, sometimes described as the main banking floor or mezzanine. Because this level is recessed from the east and north walls, it creates the impression that both floors occupy a single volume of space. With approximately 7,000 square feet of space, the second floor recalls, without imitating, the grandly-scaled halls of earlier banks. The Architectural Record described it as having an “almost classic serenity . . . dignified yet lively; ordered but not forbidding.” Devoted to commercial accounts, the second floor had a similar asymmetrical configuration to the first floor, but with groups of senior officers desks arranged at center. Behind the counter, near the west end of the south wall, was originally a large clock with metal numerals. This wall was painted white and incorporated much of the building’s mechanical system, including electricity, air conditioning ducts, and water pipes. In contrast, the west wall was faced with polished gray German marble that was possibly chosen to create a strong background for the 70foot-long screen by sculptor Harry Bertoia. Weighing about five tons, it featured more than 800 enameled steel plates supported by a framework of steel rods and braces. Ada Louise Huxtable commented that the screen added a note of “Byzantine splendor in an otherwise austerely elegant interior . . . the perfect accent for the polished surroundings.” Removed by the prior tenant in 2010, this glittery abstract artwork was not only colorful but it disguised a row of desks, as well as service doors and elevators, from public view. The banking floors were also originally enlivened by rectangular flower boxes, placed in rows along the perimeter of the second floor, and near Fifth Avenue, on the first floor.
The Escalators
The former banking floors are linked by escalators. Located on the east side of the building, they were convenient for customers entering from 43rd Street and were positioned to maximize visibility from Fifth Avenue. Rising on a diagonal in open space, without any apparent means of support, passing pedestrians could easily observe the constant the flow of customers, while inside, riders could enjoy changing views of the interiors.
Escalators were first used by American retailers at the start of the 20th century, especially in department stores. In the 1930s, a small number were installed in office buildings, including the Cities Service Building at 70 Pine Street and the International Building at 630 Fifth Avenue in Rockefeller Center. One of the first modern skyscrapers in the United States was the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society headquarters . This trail-blazing structure featured an impressive double-height banking hall on the second floor, reached by an unusually long escalator. It was, most likely, the first installed by an American bank. Following the Second World War, architects paid greater attention to the aesthetics of circulation, using spiral stairs, curving ramps, and with increasing frequency, escalators, to move people through buildings. Walker & Poor’s earlier design for the Fifth Avenue branch, for example, featured a mezzanine that was reached by escalator.
Le Maire designed the anodized aluminum interior side panels of the escalators, which were finished in a “straw gold color.” This color was probably chosen to harmonize with the 33foot-high gold-tinted curtains, the gilt Bertoia screen, or possibly Bertoia’s untitled wire “cloud” construction that was originally suspended above the escalators. Each escalator panel contained numerous small holes, allowing light from “cold cathode continuous tubes” to shine onto the moving treads. She “pioneered” this idea for the Otis Company in 1946 and it was later used in a Dayton, Ohio, department store. The bank’s newsletter described the effect: “The escalators gives a friendly glow to the room and strengthens the feeling of unity between the first and second floors.” In addition, a grid of nine evenly-spaced recessed lighting fixtures was installed above the east end of the teller’s counters on the first floor, close to where the escalators meet the ceiling.
Lighting
Vast “luminous ceilings” hover above both floors, as well as the third and fourth floor offices . Corrugated “paper thin vinyl sheeting,” hung from T-shaped metal channels, gave the ceilings an uncluttered directional character. With none of the lighting fixtures visible, it could easily be seen from both streets and reads as a floating, illuminated grid. On the second floor, the thicker metal channels direct the eye toward the west end of the room where the Bertoia screen was located, today revealing a gray marble wall. The original luminous ceiling has been altered so that a grid of three panels is now located where there was originally a single panel.
Luminous ceilings were relatively new in the early 1950s. Developed by the electrical engineer Parry Moon and Domina Eberle Spencer for use in offices, this technique produced “an even glow of illumination, without glare or shadow.” They collaborated with the Marlux Corporation, of Somerville, Massachusetts, who manufactured the panels. Interiors magazine reported:
Light from the tubes reflects again and again between the plastic panels and the brightly painted structure ceiling until nearly all the light passes through the plastic. This makes the light seem to come from an unbroken plane of light rather than rows of tubes.
It was the first of many SOM interiors to incorporate this type of ceiling and is a defining feature of these interiors.
Even from the outside, the interiors constitute the major sensation of the building,
because they are under luminous ceilings, providing light so brilliant that the
interior space is entirely and perfectly revealed …
Because the banking floors emitted an even glow, reflections were significantly reduced on the exterior and the glass seemed to vanish during daylight hours. Architectural Forum interpreted this as a shrewd retailing:
It is an old merchandizing trick, if you have a store window and you want the contents seen from the outside, you have to put more foot candles inside the glass than there are foot candles of natural light outside the glass . . . It makes a glass wall into something it has not been before, an invisible control instead of a mysterious barrier.
Luminous ceilings also enhanced each floor’s minimalist character. Not only did the panels diffuse and disguise the lighting source but they hid such necessary elements as public address systems, air diffusers, and acoustical materials. Though Huxtable criticized the “pale yellow” color in her 1954 review, saying it would never seem pleasant or flattering, this system did produce a powerful and consistent glow that helped publicize the new branch. With electric rates relatively low, management was initially instructed to keep the building “fully lighted” throughout the day and until one o’clock in the morning. Mumford was especially impressed, writing: “Viewed from outside, this building is essentially a glass lantern, and, like a lantern, is even more striking by dark than daylight.”
Vault Door
For people strolling Fifth Avenue, the most prominent feature was the circular door to the main vault – open and plainly visible from the street. Traditionally, vaults were placed below ground or at the rear of the banking floor. Instead, this vault was placed in full view, just ten feet from the sidewalk. During banking hours, people could see the door’s locking mechanism and circular frame, as well as the gate to the vault and its interior. Though safes had occasionally appeared on banking floors to comfort “wary depositors,” it did not become a widely-accepted practice until the opening of this branch.
Various reasons were given to explain the location. According to the architects, aesthetics played an important role:
It’s like sailors and boats. While we were designing the building, the bankers kept taking us down into bank cellars and showing us vault doors; then they would stand around looking at them, and say to each other reverently, ‘Isn’t it beautiful!” After a while we began to agree.
Flanigan thought the placement would benefit the bank’s clients. He told the New York Times, that “with our vault at street level, safe deposit customers can use their boxes . . . with maximum convenience.” Some writers contended that security was the main motivation and by giving the vault greater visibility, robberies could be deterred. Though this suggestion was dismissed by the bank, a year earlier the notorious bank robber Willie Sutton had been convicted of robbing a Manufacturers Trust Company branch in Sunnyside, Queens.
Lacking conventional sculptural symbols associated with banking – owls, squirrels, lions, and beehives – the gleaming door also served to confirm the building’s purpose. Mumford observed:
By raising the most dramatic physical element in the bank from the cellar to the ground floor, the architects have made the most of a natural advertisement . . . This use of the bank’s vault as an expressive and visible feature was truly an inspiration.
Huxtable expressed a similar view in Art Digest, calling it “spectacular merchandising this, and good visual drama.”
The noted industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss collaborated on the door’s design, which Industrial Design magazine included in its annual review of 1954. The unidentified author remarked how the door was “to the bank what a beautiful broach is to a dress.” Conceived as a showpiece, the 30-ton, 7-foot diameter, 16-inch thick door was made of “flange quality carbon steel, stainless steel, and chrome laminated steel,” as well as architectural bronze. Especially prominent was the bolt wheel and the I-shaped hinge, which was “so delicately balanced it can be swung with one finger.” Throughout the 1950s, Dreyfuss worked for the Mosler Safe Company, producing designs for vault doors, vaults, night depositories, and drive-in windows. According to publicity, he helped “develop the “newest look” that’s come to banking in 50 years.”
The exterior of the vault was faced with Canadian black granite. This polished stone provided an elegant backdrop for the shiny door, as well as for the luminous ceiling and white marble columns in the first floor banking hall. As one of the branch’s best-known and most-publicized features, the Dreyfuss door was lit throughout the night, providing Mosler with a “twenty-four hour advertisement.” Furthermore, the company took such great pride in this commission that each week an employee was sent to polish it. In a 1997 New York Times editorial, the door was called out as “an icon of security, immensely technical, deeply forbidding, almost ironic in its seriousness.”
Popular and Critical Reception
The glass branch was an immediate success. The New York Times, The New Yorker, Life, Saturday Evening Post, and Fortune were among various publications to cover the opening events, which attracted 15,000 visitors to admire the “clear walls, luminous ceiling, open counters, white marble columns, and sprawling main banking area.” Tours were offered to the public and by 1957 nearly 100,000 people had visited. The New York Times reported in 1955:
Fashion advertisers have posed models on the escalators and in front of the huge vault door. Some 1,100 pictures of the building have been published. Photographs and information have been supplied to 146 publications . . . When the building was opened Manufacturer’s personnel office received requests for transfer from other branches, Moreover, when the building was kept open on holidays, bank employees came with their families to see it.
Buildings, Lighting, Office Management, and Management Methods also covered aspects of the bank’s design for specialized audiences and Architectural Forum, Architectural Record, and Progressive Architecture were united in praise. One writer, however, criticized the “ostentatious under consumption of space” in Harper’s Magazine, calling it the most “uneconomical piece of architecture since the pyramids.”
For the bank, the most satisfying response is likely to have come from depositors – nine months after opening The New York Times reported that the number of savings accounts had nearly tripled and special checking accounts and commercial accounts had more than doubled. With such strong evidence “that modern banking premises are a strong attraction for new accounts,” Manufacturers Trust stepped up its program of modernizing and redecorating branch offices. Rival banks would open similar glass-walled facilities during the decade that followed, such as the one in the concourse of One Chase Manhattan Plaza and in the headquarters of the Emigrant Savings Bank at 5 East 42nd Street .
The Manufacturers Trust Company Building was awarded the Architectural League’s Gold Medal for Architecture and the Municipal Art Society’s Plaque of Commendation in 1955, and the Fifth Avenue Association’s Award for Excellence in 1956.
Recent History
In 1961, Manufacturers Trust merged with The Hanover Bank, creating the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Three decades later, in 1991, it merged with Chemical Bank. By this time, only the first floor of the Fifth Avenue branch remained open, and the second floor had been converted to offices. Automated teller machines were installed blocking the view of the escalators from Fifth Avenue and the luminous ceilings were altered. Though the east-west channels were retained, the original plastic panels were replaced with square panels divided by thin mullions. The second floor reopened as a bank branch around 1994 and the first floor was divided into two spaces, with a portion serving as the bank entrance and ATM lobby, and the balance as retail space. Chemical Bank became part of Chase Manhattan Bank in 1996.
The building exterior was designated a New York City Landmark in October 1997 and public hearings on the interior were held in 1990. Chase Manhattan sold the building to Tahl Propp Equities in 2000 but retained ownership of the artworks. At that time, Chase continued to operate a branch on the second floor and agreed to keep the Bertoia screen in place “as long as Tahl Prop owns the building.” An affiliate of Vornado Realty Trust acquired the building in 2009. When J. P. Morgan Chase closed its branch and vacated the building in 2010, it removed the Bertoia screen and hanging sculpture, as well as the teller’s counters. As of January 2011, the second floor is vacant and the west part of the first floor, facing 43rd Street, is occupied by fashion designer Elie Tahari.
Description
The former Fifth Avenue branch office of the Manufacturers Trust Company consists of three main areas: the first floor, second floor, and 43rd Street lobby. The first and second floors are enclosed by walls of clear glass, framed by polished aluminum mullions and horizontal rails. The first floor is divided into three main sections: entrance to the second floor , 43rd Street retail space , and the 43rd Street elevator lobby .
Historic First floor, east entrance vestibule: three outer doors, three inner doors, east wall with radiator openings in base, north wall with Municipal Art Society plaque; first floor: luminous ceiling with wide mullions running from east to west, escalators opposite vestibule, white terrazzo floor divided into rectangles by thin metal channels, aluminum radiator covers with elongated oval pattern along perimeter, piers with white marble facing and black footings, circular stainless steel bank vault door, hinge, and polished granite facing on vault exterior, facing Fifth Avenue. Second floor: cantilevered floor slab with horizontal aluminum ventilation grille facing street, luminous ceiling with wide aluminum channels aligned with piers, running east-west, glazed parapet around escalators, escalator landing, piers with white marble facing and black footings, west wall, grey marble, vault door , two reddish-orange elevator doors with stainless steel portals and indicator lights ;
43rd Street lobby entrance vestibule: glass doors with stainless steel walls, radiators, and ceiling; white terrazzo floor divided into rectangles with thin metal channels, luminous ceiling; elevator lobby: luminous ceiling, grey marble on east and west walls, door opening to first floor retail space, stainless steel elevator doors with indicator lights; foyer to safe deposit area: luminous ceiling, grey marble facing on east and west walls, stainless steel doors, signage above doors .
- From the 2011 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited was a bank based in Sydney, Australia. It was established in 1834, and in 1982 merged with the National Bank of Australasia to form National Australia Bank.
This building is heritage listed with the Register of the National Estate. Description, and details, can be found here:
www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_...
Charleston est. 1670, pop. 127,999 (2013) • historic Broad Street
• 3-story ltalian Renaissance Revival style bank based on 15th-16th c. Italian palazzos • faced with Connecticut brownstone • designed for State Bank of South Carolina by architectural firm Jones & Lee, Charlestonians Edward C. Jones (1822-1902) & Francis D. Lee (1826-1885) • Lee was Major in Confederate army, served on General P.T. Beauregard's staff & invented the torpedo boat • Jones had office in this bldg. Jan, 1857
• during Civil War Federal bombardment of city, bank abandoned bldg. moved to safer ground • bldg. wrecked by the shelling, State Bank collapsed with demise of Confederacy
• restored & enlarged, 1868 • owned by George A Trenholm (1807-1876), cotton broker, former Treasurer of the Confederacy & blockade runner, once one of the wealthiest persons in US • post-war, was imprisioned at Ft. Pulaski, Savannah, GA, then pardoned • Fed. govt. sued Trenholm for import duties on goods illegally obtained by running the blockade, bankrupting company • Trenholm reorganized the business, soon restored his pre-war fortune
• 1875, bldg. purchased by local merchant and Civil War blockade runner, George Walton Williams (1820-1903), founder of Carolina Savings Bank, 1875, which was headquartered here • bldg. also housed exchange of Southern Bell, local office of the U.S. Weather Bureau, Carolina Bank & Trust Co., Bankers Trust of South Carolina
• Bankers Trust restored bldg., 1978-80 • cannonball hole found in one of the pine ceiling beams during renovation • other. cannonballs occasionally found in basement from time to time.
Marker: One Broad Street
This building is one of America's finest crafted Italianate structures.
First opened in 1853 as State Bank of South Carolina, it has survived Bombardment, Hurricanes and a Major Earthquake, and Twice been restored along its original plans - First in an extensive rebuilding after Civil War damage and second in a 1978-80 restoration. It has served as the Main Charleston Office of Bankers Trust since 1969.
This site has been almost continuously occupied since the city's founding over 300 years ago, Housing a Watchmaker, Grocer, Druggist, Bookbinder and Stationer before becoming a Bank.
Constructed 1853; restored 1978
Edward C. Jones and Francis Lee, architects
• HABS No. 1 Broad St. SC-559 • Charleston Historic District, National Register # 66000964, 1966 • declared National Historic Landmark District, 1960
This was my first birthday away from home, and I missed my mom, my sister, and most certainly the special cake my mother always made for my birthday. Since getting to college that year, I would watch jealously as the other freshmen received packages from their parents on their birthdays - and even on ordinary days. Instead of feeling thrilled about my coming eighteenth birthday, I felt empty. I wished my mom would send me something, too, but I knew that she couldn’t afford presents or the postage.
She had done her best with my sister and me - raising us by herself. The simple truth was, there just was never enough money.But that didn’t stop her from filling us with dreams. “You can be anything you want to be,” she would tell us. “Politicians, dancers, writers - you just have to work for it, you have to get an education.”
For a long time, because of my mother’s resourcefulness, I didn’t realize that we were poor. She did so much with so little. She took care of our house, practically nursing the forty-year-old pipes and oil furnace to keep us warm throughout the cold winters. She clothed and fed us. She found ways to get us scholarships so that we could take violin and piano lessons from some of the best teachers in Philadelphia. She never missed an opportunity to have a tête-à-tête with our schoolteachers, and she attended all our plays and musical performances.
My mother had high hopes for my sister and me. She saw the way out of poverty for us was education. We didn’t play all the time with the other children on the street, or stay out late on the porch laughing and talking with our neighbors. We were inside doing our homework and reading books. She sat with us while we did our work and taught us how to learn what she didn’t know by plowing through encyclopedias or visiting the library.
She never bought anything that she could make herself, and only for emergencies did she tap the spotless credit she maintained at family-run bank based in the city center.
Thanks to my mom’s sacrifices and big dreams, I’d made it to the Ivy League: Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Yet I was afraid that I wouldn’t measure up to the other students. They seemed to exude confidence and the smell of money. I felt very lost and far away sometimes.
As I daydreamed, there was a knock on the door. My roommate opened it to find a deliveryman asking for me. He handed her a large rectangular box, which she carefully placed on the desk near my bed. I opened it and inside was a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. In icing were the words: Happy Birthday, Sande! Love, Mom and Rosalind. I felt as if my mother were right there hugging me close. How had she managed to afford it?
I ran out to the hall and knocked on my dorm mates’ doors. “Birthday cake,” I called. As I cut cake for the ten students gathered in my room, then watched their faces as they ate, I didn’t need to eat to feel both full and rich inside.
S. S.
The Royal Bank of Scotland Dundas House in Edinburgh
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The Royal Bank of Scotland plc(Scittish Gaclic:Banca Rioghail na h-Alba)is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of The Royal Bank of Scotland plc,and together NatWest Bank and Ulster Bank,provides branch banking facilities throughout the British Isles.The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches,mainly in Scotland though there are branches in many large towns and cities throughout England,and Wales.The Royal Bank of Scotland and its parent.The Royal Bank of Scotland Group,are completely separate from the fellow Edinburgh based bank,the Bank of Scotland,which pre-date The Royal Bank of Scotland by 32 years.The Bank of Scotland was effective in raising funds for the Jacobite Rebellion and as a result,The Royal Bank of Scotland was established to provide a bank with strong Hanoverian and Whig ties.
History
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Foundation
The bank traces its origin to the Society of the Subsribed Equivalent Dept,which set up by investors in failed Company of Scotland to protect the compensation they received as part the arrangements of the 1707 Act of Union.The "Equivalent Society"become the "Equivalent Company"in 1724,and the new company wished to move into baking.The British government received the request favourablely as the "Old Bank",the Bank of Scotland,was suspected of having Jackobite sympathies.Accordingly,the "New Bank"was chartered in 1727 as the as the Royal Bank of Scotland,with Archibald Campbell,Lord Ilay,appointed its first governor.
In 1728,the Royal Bank of Scotland became the first bank in the world to offer an overdraft facility.
Competition with the Bank of Scotland
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Competition between the Old Banks and New Banks was fierce and centred on the issue of banknotes.The policy of the Royal Bank was to either drive the Bank of Scotland out of business,or take it over favourable terms
The royal Bank built up larger holding of the Bank of Scotland's note,which it acquired in exchange for its own note,then suddenly presented to the Bank of Scotland for payment.To pay these notes,the Bank of Scotland was forced to call in its loans and,in March 1728,to suspend payments.The suspension relieve the immediate pressure on the Bank of Scotland at the cost of substantial damage to its repuitation,and gave the Royal Bank a clear space to expand its own business-although the Royal Bank's increased note issue also made vulnerable to the same tactics.
Despite talk of a merger with the Bank of Scotland,the Royal Bank did not possess the wherewithal to completed the deal.By September 1728,the Bank of Scotland was able to start redeeming its note again,with interst,and in March 1729,it resumed lending.To prevent similar attacks in the future,the Bank of Scotland put an "option clause" on its notes,giving it the right to make the note interest-bearing while delaying payment for six months;the Royal bank followed suit.Both banks eventually decided the the policy they had followed was mutually self-desructive and a truce was arranged,but it still took until 1751 before the two bonks agreed to accept each other note.
Scottish Expansion
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The bank opened its first branch office outside Edinburgh in 1783 when it openedone in Glasgow.Further branches were opened in Dundee,Rothesay,Dalkeith,Greenock,Port Glasgow,and Leith in the first part of the nineteenth century.
In 1821 the bank moved from it original head office in Edinburgh's Old Town to Dundas House,on St Andrew Square in the New Town.The building as seen along as seen along George Street forms the eastern end of the central vista in New Town.It was designed for Sir Lawrence Dundas by Sir William Chambers as Palladian mansion,completed in 1774.An axial banking hall (Telling Room)behind the building,designed by John Richard Peddie,was added in 1857;it features a domed roof,painted blue internally,with gold stars-shaped coffers.The banking hall continues in use as a branch of the bank and Dundas House remains the registered head office of the bank to this day.
The rest of the nineteenth century saw the bank pursue margerd with other Scottish banks,chiefly as response to failing institution.The assets and liabilities of the Western Bank were acquired following its collapsed in 1857;the Dundee Banking Company was acquired in 1864.By 1910,the Royal Bank of Scotland had 158 branches and around 900 staff.
In 1969,the bank merged with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland to become the largest clearing bank in Scotland.
Expansion int England
--------------------------------
The expansion of the British Empire in the latter half of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of London as the largest financial center in the world,attracting Scottish banks to expand southward into England.The first London branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland opened in 1874.However,English banks moved to prevent further expansion by Scottish bank into England; and after a government committee was set up to examine the matter,the Scottish bank chose to drop their expansion plans.An agreement was reached,under which English banks would not open branches in Scotland and Scottish banks world not open branches in England outside of London.This agreement remained in place until the 1960s although various cross-borders acquisition were permitted.
The Royal Bank's English expansion plabs were resurrected after World war I,when it acquired various small English banks,including London-based Drummonds Bank (in 1924);Williams Deacon's Bank based in northwestern England (in 1930);and Glyn Mills & Co.(in 1939);latter two were merged in 1970 to form Williams and Glyn Bank,but not rebranded as the Royal Bank of Scotland until 1985.The Royal Bank of Scotland Group unveiled plans to resurrect the Williams and Glyn's band name in preparation for a programme of divestment of its Royal Bank of Scotland retail banking business in England and its NatWest equivalent in Scotland.The Royal Bank subsequently annouced plans to sell there branched to Spanish bank Santander.It is anticpated that Santander will integrate the branches under the Santander brand,rather than Williams and Glyn.
Banknotes
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Up until the middle of the 19th century,privately owned banks in Great Britain and Ireland were permitted to their own banknotes,and money issured by provincial Scottish,English Welsh,and Irish banking companies circulated freely as a means of payment.While the bank of England eventually gained a monopoly for issuing banknotes in England banks,and Wales banks,Scottish banks retained the right to issue their own banknotes and continue to do so this day.The Royal Bank of Scotland,along with Clydesdale Bank and Bank of Scotland,still prints it own banknotes.
notes issued by Scottish banks circulate widely and may be used as a means of payment throughout Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom;although they do not have the status of legal tender they are accecpted as promissory notes.It should be noted that no paper money is legal tender in Scotland,even that issued by the Bank of England (which is legal tender in England and Wales).
The "Ilay" series (1987)
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The current series of Royal Bank of Scotland notes was originally issued in 1987.On the front of each note is a picture of Lord Ilay (1682-1761),the first governor of the bank.The image is based on a portrait of Lord Ilay painted in 1744 by the Edinburgh artist Allan Ramsay.
The front of the note also included an engraving of the facade of Sir Laurence Dundas's mansion in St andrew Square,edinburgh,which was built by Sir William Chambers in1774 and later became the bank's headquarters,the bank's coat of arms and the 1969 arrows logo and branding.The background graphics on both sides of the notes is a radial star design which is based on the ornate ceiling of the banking hall in the old headquaters building designed by John Richard Peddie in 1857.
On the back of the note are image of scottish castles,with a different castle for each denomination;
Current issue in circulation are:
1 pound ($1,53) note featuring Edinburgh Castle
5 pound ($7.69) note featuring Culzean Castle
10 pound ($15.38) note featuring Glamis Castle
20 pound ($30.76) note feature Brodick Castle
50 pound ($76.91) note feature Inverness Castle
100 pound ($153,83) note feature Inverness Castle
Commemorative banknotes
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Occasionally the Royal Bank of Scotland issues special commemorative banknotes to mark particular occasions or to celebrate famous people.The Royal Bank was the first British bank to print commemorative banknotes in 1992,and followed with several subsequent special issues.These notes are much sought-after by collectors and they rarely remain long in circulation to date have included.
a 1pound ($1.53) note mark the meeting of the Council of the European Union in Holyrood Palace during the United Kingdom's Presidency of the Council of the European Union (1992)
1 pound ($1.53) note to mark the 100th Anniversary of the death of Robert Louis Stevenson (1994)
1 pound ($1.53) note to marke the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell (1997)
1 pound ($1.53) note to mark the opening of the Scottish Paraliament,depiction the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland,the temporary home of the parliament,and a diagram of the floorplan of the new parliament building,designed by Enric Miralles (1999)
Branding
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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group used branding developed for the bank on its merger with the National Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1969.The Group's logo takes the form of an abstract symbol of four inward-pointed arrows known as the "Daisy Wheel" and is based on an arrangement of 36 piles of coins in a 6 by 6 square,reprenting the accumulation and concentration of wealth by the Group.The Daisy Wheel logo was later adopted by Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiaries worldpay,Ulster Bank in Ireland and Citizens Financial Group in the united States.
Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, holds the daily noon briefing remotely. Today he was joined by guest Joshua Setipa, Managing Director of the UN Technology Bank, based in Turkey, who briefed reporters on the launch of the Technology Access Partnership, a new coordinated initiative to strengthen developing countries' responses to COVID-19 and increase access to lifesaving health technologies.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
12 May 2020
New York, United States of America
Photo # 841418
Joshua Setipa, Managing Director of the UN Technology Bank, based in Turkey, briefs reporters on the launch of the Technology Access Partnership, a new coordinated initiative to strengthen developing countries' responses to COVID-19 and increase access to lifesaving health technologies.
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
12 May 2020
New York, United States of America
Photo # 841417
Seen in Castle Street, Aberdeen sporting an allover advert for Wimpy Homes is Grampian Regional Transport 264 HRS 264V
Leyland Atlantean AN68A/1R : Alexander AL H45/29D
New 4/1980.
On the opposite corner is the imposing granite facade of the Clydesdale Bank Principal Aberdeen office, which was previously the head office of the local North of Scotland Bank which merged with the Clydesdale Bank based in Glasgow in the 1950.. This building like so many others has been turned into a pub/restaurant, this time operated by Wetherspoons and called after the architect who designed the building Archibald Simpson. Note Ceres, the Roman Goddess of Plenty statue on the roof.
In real life the allotment was on the lower slope of the bridge grass banking, I have detailed it with a shed, vegetables, a cat playing with a toad plus bramble bushes growing on the steeper banks. It all helps to break up the otherwise sharp edges of the banks base construction.
No. 54, Pine Street. Completed in 1906 according to Emporis.com
Originally as A. G. Becker & Co.'s New York office. A. G. Becker was an investment bank based in Chicago and was founded in 1893. In 1984 it was acquired by Merrill Lynch.
St James Church St Helens
I Don't know about this church as it looked out of commission but there was a stone Laid in 1890 By The very interesting Sir Gilbert Greenall Bart MP
Sir Gilbert Greenall, 1st Baronet (11 May 1806-10 July 1894), was a British businessman and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1847 and 1892.
Greenall was the sixth and youngest son of Edward Greenall of Walton Hall, Cheshire. His grandfather was Thomas Greenall, who had established a brewery in St Helen's in 1762, on which the family wealth was based. Greenall assumed control of the family brewery business and also had interests in the St Helens Canal and Railway Company and in Parr, Lyons and Greenall Bank, based in Warrington. He was and a J.P. for Lancashire and Cheshire.[1]
In 1847 Greenall was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Warrington, a seat he held until 1868, when he was unseated through an error of the Mayor's poll-clerk.[2] In 1873 he was appointed High Sheriff of Cheshire and in 1874, he was reelected MP for Warrington. In 1876 he was created a Baronet, of Walton Hall in the County of Chester.[3] He lost his seat at Warrington in 1880, but was re-elected in 1885 and remained until he retired at the 1892 general election.[4]
Greenall married, firstly, Mary, daughter of David Claughton, in 1836. After her death in 1861 he married, secondly, Susannah, daughter of John Lovis Rapp. He died in July 1894, aged 88, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his only son from his first marriage, Gilbert, who was created Baron Daresbury in 1927. Susannah, Lady Greenall, died in 1896.[5]
I took this from the central reservation of the Dual Carriageway the two police officers passing were not bothered
Nikon D60 18-55mm Kit Lens
Fan of “Bitcoincloud” 2.1
Artistic Technology Research
Bitcoincloud is a post-interactive installation and reactive sculpture thematizing artistic production as well as alternative economics. The work excludes itself from the art market by generating Bitcoins in direct relation to the attention it receives from its audience.
On display is a custom modification of a computer fan - with LEDs and a lasercut wooden central element.
Card of “Spacebank”, customer #152
Fran Ilich (2012)
Through mimicking capitalism, Ilich questions how we can subvert the existing financial system. The Spacebank is a Virtual Community Investment Bank based on the Digital Material Sunflower (DMS) floating currency. Spacebank offers a market for alternative and experimental currencies through the Brooklyn Stock Exchange trading platform.
Sunflower Seeds / Blockchain Performance
Fran Ilich & Artistic Bokeh (2012)
“Globalized capitalist markets use finance as a means to extract surplus and value from localized world production - relying on networks of power to do so. But finance can also be reversed engineered so that it becomes the seed for new forms of cooperation, collaboration and socialization, drawing on and building networks through virtual communities. Used creatively, finance can actually further the prosperity and efficacy of minority reports, marginal narratives, alternate commodity markets, social currencies, hacktivism and other activist practices, as well as strengthen the hope of sustainability in creative digital labor and internet production practices.“ (text via eyebeam)
On display are 20 Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds that were purchased with Bitcoins generated by the BitcoinCloud. The transaction between Artistic Bokeh and SpaceBank stays active in the Bitcoin Blockchain and is publicly viewable. Initially, Ai Weiwei produced over 100 million seeds - the porcelain items were hand-painted by artisans in Jingdezhen. The seeds gained in value after the Tate Modern bought approx. eight million. In a Sotheby’s auction (2011) the seeds sold for £3.50 apiece. The Bitcoins that were used to purchase 20 seeds are now valued at approximately $6120.00 (as of Nov 26, 2013).
Community Currency “Gibling”
Franz Xaver
The Austrian community currency Gibling is designed by artists and represents “depreciating money” (it loses 5% of its value per year). Currently over 40 partner institutions in (Museums, Shops, etc.) accept the currency in Austria.
Sunflower Seeds / Blockchain Performance
Fran Ilich & Artistic Bokeh (2012)
“Globalized capitalist markets use finance as a means to extract surplus and value from localized world production - relying on networks of power to do so. But finance can also be reversed engineered so that it becomes the seed for new forms of cooperation, collaboration and socialization, drawing on and building networks through virtual communities. Used creatively, finance can actually further the prosperity and efficacy of minority reports, marginal narratives, alternate commodity markets, social currencies, hacktivism and other activist practices, as well as strengthen the hope of sustainability in creative digital labor and internet production practices.“ (text via eyebeam)
On display are 20 Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds that were purchased with Bitcoins generated by the BitcoinCloud. The transaction between Artistic Bokeh and SpaceBank stays active in the Bitcoin Blockchain and is publicly viewable. Initially, Ai Weiwei produced over 100 million seeds - the porcelain items were hand-painted by artisans in Jingdezhen. The seeds gained in value after the Tate Modern bought approx. eight million. In a Sotheby’s auction (2011) the seeds sold for £3.50 apiece. The Bitcoins that were used to purchase 20 seeds are now valued at approximately $6120.00 (as of Nov 26, 2013).
“mas*ing” - the cup
Prayas Abhinav (2012)
We live in times which place a particularly high value on transparency and surveillance. So the desire in society to know everything about us and the desire to allow agents to know everything about us co-exist at the same time. We are implicated in this process by willingly letting our web identity and presence become a brochure. Social media becomes a space for thinking out loud. Our website-brochures communicate our polished professional profile and social media confirms that we are human and reachable. It seems like a plan for making a convincing sales-pitch. Prayas Abhinav’s masking hardware apparatus allows a kind of privileging and layering of the access which people have to an online resource or conversation. The cup becomes a key that allows an individual access to a more intimate and discreet space for online social interaction.
gift an object to a friend.
share a story on your site that you only
want your friend to access.
your friend visits your website and plugs in the object to the computer.
only your friend sees the story.
repeat.
Community Currency “Gibling”
Franz Xaver
The Austrian community currency Gibling is designed by artists and represents “depreciating money” (it loses 5% of its value per year). Currently over 40 partner institutions in (Museums, Shops, etc.) accept the currency in Austria.
Tai Ping Rd, British Concession.
The island of Formosa had been administered as a Japanese colony since 1895, following the Sino-Japanese War of 1892-1895. Established in 1899, the Bank of Taiwan was very much a Japanese bank albeit based in Taipei, and together with the de facto Japanese Government bank, the Yokohama Specie Bank and another Japanese colonial bank based in Korea, the Bank of Chosen, adopted a very aggressive expansion into the China markets in the early 1900s, mirroring official Japanese policy.
Hankow had a Japanese Concession area, established in 1898 after the Sino-Japanese War. At the time, the Japanese had ambitions as a world power and aligned itself in the early years of the 20th century with the European powers in China.
Neither Japan nor its bankers were popular in China in the early 20th century; anti-Japanese feeling being almost a national characteristic of the Chinese. There were frequent boycotts of Japanese businesses and banks and to overcome this anti-Japanese sentiment, the Yokohama Specie Bank conducted much of its business through its colonial banks.
There is nothing remotely Japanese about the design of this building - all rustication, columns and balustraded parapets; this is a building which would not look out of place in London or Manchester. Given the anti-Japanese feeling of the time, it is almost as if the brief to the architects was to avoid any reference or motif to Japan. Unsurprisingly perhaps given its very British appearance, the architects were the locally based British firm of Messrs Hemmings & Berkley.
Triodos Bank UK, Deanery Road, Bristol, Avon.
Triodos Bank N.V. is a bank based in the Netherlands with branches in Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain. It claims to be a pioneer in ethical banking. Triodos Bank finances companies which it thinks add cultural value and benefit both people and the environment. That includes companies in the fields of solar energy, organic farming or culture. The name Triodos is derived from the Greek "τρὶ ὁδος - tri hodos," meaning "three-way approach" (people, planet, profit). Triodos Bank's balance sheet was worth EUR 5.3 billion by the end of 2012. It is influenced by the anthroposophical movement.
Truth provides the entrepreneurs with monetary and finance advice and helps in preparing the economic feasibility study in Abu Dhabi on the grounds of the market study, the technical, engineering, or financial study. Further, Truth assists in finding and procuring the finance necessary for completing projects’ invested capital from banks and treasuries, the specialized and commercial.
Elaboration:
Preparation of the initial and detailed economic feasibility study in Abu Dhabi is one of the services rendered by Truth Economic Consultancy, for which an official and professional license was issued by the Department of Economic Development in the UAE. This license is the legal framework, by which we practice our business in the state.
Our accumulated experience in preparing feasibility studies made us a standout in this domain. The reports issued by Truth are peculiar and the specialized can identify the form and style of our studies. Anyway, preparing feasibility studies for economic projects includes the following sections:
Monetary and Finance Consultancies:
Economic Feasibility Study:
Market Study.
Technical and Engineering Study.
Financial Study.
Monetary and Finance Advice:
Assisting in finding and procuring the finance necessary for completing the invested capital for projects from banks and treasuries, the specialized and commercial.
Banks and Finance Advice
Truth is distinguished with its ability to provide finance from several sources, local and foreign, at a proper interest rate. In addition, Truth hires unique and specialized competencies including engineers and technical cadre that are empowered to design projects and supervise their implementation until the starting up for fulfilling market purposes.
Truth has special relationships with the most important local and Arab treasuries and funds, which provide their facilities to the economic projects prepared by Truth. The most important facilities provided by the funds are:
Contribution to the capital at an agreed percentage.
Offering financial facilities in different forms, the most important of which are:
Istisna’ (a long-term contract whereby a party undertakes to manufacture, build or construct assets, with an obligation from the manufacturer or producer to deliver them to the customer upon completion)
Murabaha (an Islamic term for a sale where the buyer and seller agree on the markup for the item(s) being sold)
Al-Ijarah (rent/lease/hire)
Soft loans
Documentary credit for financing the capital.
The most important institutions of which are:
The Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (Joint Arab Authority based in Khartoum – Dubai)
El-Khaleej Investment Company (joint Gulf foundation based in Kuwait).
The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (one of the most important projects of the Islamic Development Bank based in Jeddah – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Emirates Industrial Bank (Abu Dhabi- the UAE).
Abu Dhabi Investment Company (Abu Dhabi- the UAE)
Mubadala Office (Abu Dhabi – the UAE).
The Arab Bank for Economic and Social Development (Kuwait).
Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Finance.
Economic Feasibility study
“The detailed economic feasibility studies made by Truth Economic ConsultancyCompany about joint stock companies (public- private) are licensed by the ESCA and approved by the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi Emirate.”
Market Study
The main objective of preparing the market study is obtaining results closer to reality through the following points:
The volume of the actual demand for a commodity (service).
The volume of the actual supply of a commodity (service).
The actual gap of demand for a commodity (service).
Estimation of the actual demand gap volume within 10 years.
The competitive commodities (services) and the volume of their spread in the market.
Prices of competitive commodities.
The proposed marketing policy and advertisement campaign.
Studying the job structure of the sales, marketing, and workers’ remedies department.
In light of the previous results, reaching a decision of how feasible it is to establish a project for producing this commodity or rendering this service.
Technical and Engineering Study
The main objective of preparing the technical study for producing a commodity or rendering service is to reach precisely the following points:
Determining the unit of cost.. hour- meter- kilogram – ton..etc.
The cost of the unit and the intended aim is calculating all the direct and indirect costs (industrial- service) relating to the production and dividing it on the number of producing units (either commodity- service) at full capacity.
The technical and engineering feasibility study is deemed a main pillar in the project’s feasibility study. Further, carrying out this study necessitates having several marketing and economic data and information that are available at different stages of the project’s feasibility study; as the technical study aims at determining to what extent the project is technically feasible. In particular, this study includes a number of steps represented in:
Description of the project.
Selecting the site appropriate for the project.
Selecting the appropriate product type.
Determining the main elements required by the project.
Evaluating the project environmentally.
Estimating the economic life of the project.
Estimating the project’s costs.
Analyzing all the technical and engineering aspects is deemed a major stage in the project’s feasibility studies; as this study is an attempt of checking whether or not the project can technically be carried out. Several ideas are generated and some investment opportunities came up with products that satisfy a real demand in the markets. Yet, a small number of these ideas can be technically carried out; as the available production ways, the proposed technological method, the availability of raw materials, and all the other operation requirements…etc. determine whether or not the project is feasible.
Financial Study
The financial feasibility study is of paramount importance for two reasons; First: The results of the other previous aspects have an impact on the financial study in the form of data, figures of revenues, and costs that are translated to financial values and meanings. Second: The financial study provides indicators for the extent of the project’s commercial profitability, which concerns several parties such as investors, banks, and responsible governmental entities. Through the estimation of investment proposals, the extent of the project’s attractiveness and profitability rates can be known in comparison with the costs of alternative opportunities and other projects. This helps investors make propaganda of the project before the local and foreign financers and all the concerned parties. On the other hand, through the prepared financial statements based on the data of demand, production, and labor, potentials such as the provision of foreign currencies, labor, and employment opportunities, which the project can avail, can be estimated. Accordingly, the project can be evaluated in terms of social profitability.
The objective of preparing the financial feasibility study is evaluating the usefulness of investment opportunities in the viewpoint of investors, based on a number of methods and standards. Hence, investors, eventually, are able to select economically accepted investment opportunities.
Furthermore, the financial study is the most important part of the economic feasibility study . Its importance lies in leading to take the decision of the project establishment- through the results found. This does not mean to belittle the importance of the other study sections, namely:
The Market study.
The Technical study.
The financial study is responsible for:
Determining the total amount of money invested for the project, and how it is procured from its sources whether from entrepreneurs, banks, and treasuries.
Preparing the estimated closing accounts (balance sheet- income statement) on the grounds of the assumptions adopted throughout the project life expectancy.
Extracting the most important financial indicators from the estimated balance sheet and income statements throughout the life expectancy of the project (Preparing cash flow statements, Cash outflow statement, Cash inflow statement, Net flow).
– Preparing cash flow statements.
– Cash outflow statement.
– Cash inflow statement.
– Net flow.
– Extracting the most important investment indicators of the project
– Recovery period.
– Current net value.
– Internal revenue rate.
– Break-even point.
– Sensitivity analysis.
– Mosallam ratio.
The study recommendation of how much the project is feasible
Fan of “Bitcoincloud” 2.1
Artistic Technology Research
Bitcoincloud is a post-interactive installation and reactive sculpture thematizing artistic production as well as alternative economics. The work excludes itself from the art market by generating Bitcoins in direct relation to the attention it receives from its audience.
On display is a custom modification of a computer fan - with LEDs and a lasercut wooden central element.
Card of “Spacebank”, customer #152
Fran Ilich (2012)
Through mimicking capitalism, Ilich questions how we can subvert the existing financial system. The Spacebank is a Virtual Community Investment Bank based on the Digital Material Sunflower (DMS) floating currency. Spacebank offers a market for alternative and experimental currencies through the Brooklyn Stock Exchange trading platform.
Sunflower Seeds / Blockchain Performance
Fran Ilich & Artistic Bokeh (2012)
“Globalized capitalist markets use finance as a means to extract surplus and value from localized world production - relying on networks of power to do so. But finance can also be reversed engineered so that it becomes the seed for new forms of cooperation, collaboration and socialization, drawing on and building networks through virtual communities. Used creatively, finance can actually further the prosperity and efficacy of minority reports, marginal narratives, alternate commodity markets, social currencies, hacktivism and other activist practices, as well as strengthen the hope of sustainability in creative digital labor and internet production practices.“ (text via eyebeam)
On display are 20 Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds that were purchased with Bitcoins generated by the BitcoinCloud. The transaction between Artistic Bokeh and SpaceBank stays active in the Bitcoin Blockchain and is publicly viewable. Initially, Ai Weiwei produced over 100 million seeds - the porcelain items were hand-painted by artisans in Jingdezhen. The seeds gained in value after the Tate Modern bought approx. eight million. In a Sotheby’s auction (2011) the seeds sold for £3.50 apiece. The Bitcoins that were used to purchase 20 seeds are now valued at approximately $6120.00 (as of Nov 26, 2013).
Community Currency “Gibling”
Franz Xaver
The Austrian community currency Gibling is designed by artists and represents “depreciating money” (it loses 5% of its value per year). Currently over 40 partner institutions in (Museums, Shops, etc.) accept the currency in Austria.
Sunflower Seeds / Blockchain Performance
Fran Ilich & Artistic Bokeh (2012)
“Globalized capitalist markets use finance as a means to extract surplus and value from localized world production - relying on networks of power to do so. But finance can also be reversed engineered so that it becomes the seed for new forms of cooperation, collaboration and socialization, drawing on and building networks through virtual communities. Used creatively, finance can actually further the prosperity and efficacy of minority reports, marginal narratives, alternate commodity markets, social currencies, hacktivism and other activist practices, as well as strengthen the hope of sustainability in creative digital labor and internet production practices.“ (text via eyebeam)
On display are 20 Ai Weiwei sunflower seeds that were purchased with Bitcoins generated by the BitcoinCloud. The transaction between Artistic Bokeh and SpaceBank stays active in the Bitcoin Blockchain and is publicly viewable. Initially, Ai Weiwei produced over 100 million seeds - the porcelain items were hand-painted by artisans in Jingdezhen. The seeds gained in value after the Tate Modern bought approx. eight million. In a Sotheby’s auction (2011) the seeds sold for £3.50 apiece. The Bitcoins that were used to purchase 20 seeds are now valued at approximately $6120.00 (as of Nov 26, 2013).
“mas*ing” - the cup
Prayas Abhinav (2012)
We live in times which place a particularly high value on transparency and surveillance. So the desire in society to know everything about us and the desire to allow agents to know everything about us co-exist at the same time. We are implicated in this process by willingly letting our web identity and presence become a brochure. Social media becomes a space for thinking out loud. Our website-brochures communicate our polished professional profile and social media confirms that we are human and reachable. It seems like a plan for making a convincing sales-pitch. Prayas Abhinav’s masking hardware apparatus allows a kind of privileging and layering of the access which people have to an online resource or conversation. The cup becomes a key that allows an individual access to a more intimate and discreet space for online social interaction.
gift an object to a friend.
share a story on your site that you only
want your friend to access.
your friend visits your website and plugs in the object to the computer.
only your friend sees the story.
repeat.
Community Currency “Gibling”
Franz Xaver
The Austrian community currency Gibling is designed by artists and represents “depreciating money” (it loses 5% of its value per year). Currently over 40 partner institutions in (Museums, Shops, etc.) accept the currency in Austria.
Truth provides the entrepreneurs with monetary and finance advice and helps in preparing the economic feasibility study in Abu Dhabi on the grounds of the market study, the technical, engineering, or financial study. Further, Truth assists in finding and procuring the finance necessary for completing projects’ invested capital from banks and treasuries, the specialized and commercial.
Elaboration:
Preparation of the initial and detailed economic feasibility study in Abu Dhabi is one of the services rendered by Truth Economic Consultancy, for which an official and professional license was issued by the Department of Economic Development in the UAE. This license is the legal framework, by which we practice our business in the state.
Our accumulated experience in preparing feasibility studies made us a standout in this domain. The reports issued by Truth are peculiar and the specialized can identify the form and style of our studies. Anyway, preparing feasibility studies for economic projects includes the following sections:
Monetary and Finance Consultancies:
Economic Feasibility Study:
Market Study.
Technical and Engineering Study.
Financial Study.
Monetary and Finance Advice:
Assisting in finding and procuring the finance necessary for completing the invested capital for projects from banks and treasuries, the specialized and commercial.
Banks and Finance Advice
Truth is distinguished with its ability to provide finance from several sources, local and foreign, at a proper interest rate. In addition, Truth hires unique and specialized competencies including engineers and technical cadre that are empowered to design projects and supervise their implementation until the starting up for fulfilling market purposes.
Truth has special relationships with the most important local and Arab treasuries and funds, which provide their facilities to the economic projects prepared by Truth. The most important facilities provided by the funds are:
Contribution to the capital at an agreed percentage.
Offering financial facilities in different forms, the most important of which are:
Istisna’ (a long-term contract whereby a party undertakes to manufacture, build or construct assets, with an obligation from the manufacturer or producer to deliver them to the customer upon completion)
Murabaha (an Islamic term for a sale where the buyer and seller agree on the markup for the item(s) being sold)
Al-Ijarah (rent/lease/hire)
Soft loans
Documentary credit for financing the capital.
The most important institutions of which are:
The Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (Joint Arab Authority based in Khartoum – Dubai)
El-Khaleej Investment Company (joint Gulf foundation based in Kuwait).
The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (one of the most important projects of the Islamic Development Bank based in Jeddah – the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).
Emirates Industrial Bank (Abu Dhabi- the UAE).
Abu Dhabi Investment Company (Abu Dhabi- the UAE)
Mubadala Office (Abu Dhabi – the UAE).
The Arab Bank for Economic and Social Development (Kuwait).
Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Finance.
Economic Feasibility study
“The detailed economic feasibility studies made by Truth Economic ConsultancyCompany about joint stock companies (public- private) are licensed by the ESCA and approved by the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi Emirate.”
Market Study
The main objective of preparing the market study is obtaining results closer to reality through the following points:
The volume of the actual demand for a commodity (service).
The volume of the actual supply of a commodity (service).
The actual gap of demand for a commodity (service).
Estimation of the actual demand gap volume within 10 years.
The competitive commodities (services) and the volume of their spread in the market.
Prices of competitive commodities.
The proposed marketing policy and advertisement campaign.
Studying the job structure of the sales, marketing, and workers’ remedies department.
In light of the previous results, reaching a decision of how feasible it is to establish a project for producing this commodity or rendering this service.
Technical and Engineering Study
The main objective of preparing the technical study for producing a commodity or rendering service is to reach precisely the following points:
Determining the unit of cost.. hour- meter- kilogram – ton..etc.
The cost of the unit and the intended aim is calculating all the direct and indirect costs (industrial- service) relating to the production and dividing it on the number of producing units (either commodity- service) at full capacity.
The technical and engineering feasibility study is deemed a main pillar in the project’s feasibility study. Further, carrying out this study necessitates having several marketing and economic data and information that are available at different stages of the project’s feasibility study; as the technical study aims at determining to what extent the project is technically feasible. In particular, this study includes a number of steps represented in:
Description of the project.
Selecting the site appropriate for the project.
Selecting the appropriate product type.
Determining the main elements required by the project.
Evaluating the project environmentally.
Estimating the economic life of the project.
Estimating the project’s costs.
Analyzing all the technical and engineering aspects is deemed a major stage in the project’s feasibility studies; as this study is an attempt of checking whether or not the project can technically be carried out. Several ideas are generated and some investment opportunities came up with products that satisfy a real demand in the markets. Yet, a small number of these ideas can be technically carried out; as the available production ways, the proposed technological method, the availability of raw materials, and all the other operation requirements…etc. determine whether or not the project is feasible.
Financial Study
The financial feasibility study is of paramount importance for two reasons; First: The results of the other previous aspects have an impact on the financial study in the form of data, figures of revenues, and costs that are translated to financial values and meanings. Second: The financial study provides indicators for the extent of the project’s commercial profitability, which concerns several parties such as investors, banks, and responsible governmental entities. Through the estimation of investment proposals, the extent of the project’s attractiveness and profitability rates can be known in comparison with the costs of alternative opportunities and other projects. This helps investors make propaganda of the project before the local and foreign financers and all the concerned parties. On the other hand, through the prepared financial statements based on the data of demand, production, and labor, potentials such as the provision of foreign currencies, labor, and employment opportunities, which the project can avail, can be estimated. Accordingly, the project can be evaluated in terms of social profitability.
The objective of preparing the financial feasibility study is evaluating the usefulness of investment opportunities in the viewpoint of investors, based on a number of methods and standards. Hence, investors, eventually, are able to select economically accepted investment opportunities.
Furthermore, the financial study is the most important part of the economic feasibility study . Its importance lies in leading to take the decision of the project establishment- through the results found. This does not mean to belittle the importance of the other study sections, namely:
The Market study.
The Technical study.
The financial study is responsible for:
Determining the total amount of money invested for the project, and how it is procured from its sources whether from entrepreneurs, banks, and treasuries.
Preparing the estimated closing accounts (balance sheet- income statement) on the grounds of the assumptions adopted throughout the project life expectancy.
Extracting the most important financial indicators from the estimated balance sheet and income statements throughout the life expectancy of the project (Preparing cash flow statements, Cash outflow statement, Cash inflow statement, Net flow).
– Preparing cash flow statements.
– Cash outflow statement.
– Cash inflow statement.
– Net flow.
– Extracting the most important investment indicators of the project
– Recovery period.
– Current net value.
– Internal revenue rate.
– Break-even point.
– Sensitivity analysis.
– Mosallam ratio.
The study recommendation of how much the project is feasible
The Irish Republic uses the Euro and its central bank is the Central Bank of Ireland. Northern Ireland uses the British Pound and the equal-value Northern Irish Pound. The Northern Irish Pound is issued by four commercial banks and not by the Bank of England. This is a 5-Northern-Irish-Pound note issued by the Bank of Ireland, which is a commercial bank based in the Republic. Confusing enough for you?
The image depicted here, is the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
If you're interested in international banking, I maintain a web blog on the subject:
The Haier Building - Greenwich Savings Bank former headquarters, at the intersection of Broadway and West 36th Street.
Greenwich Savings Bank was an American savings bank based in New York City that operated from 1833 to 1981. At the time of its closure in 1981, it was the 16th largest bank in the U.S. by total deposits.
Greenwich Savings Bank was chartered in 1833 in New York City. At its height, it had branches in New York City, Nassau County and Suffolk County with US$2.1 billion in assets.
In 1922-24, the bank constructed its new headquarters at the intersection of Broadway and W. 36th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The steel-reinforced limestone/sandstone building was designed by York and Sawyer in a Classical Revival style with monumental columns, rusticated walls and a Roman-style dome.
The interior was embellished with ten-foot-tall brass foyer doors, a board room and executive office with rubbed-oak paneling and soapstone fireplaces, and an elliptical banking room with limestone Corinthian columns, granite walls, a marble floor, a bronze tellers' screen with sculptures of Minerva (symbolizing wisdom) and Mercury (representing commerce), and a coffered, domed ceiling with a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) stained-glass skylight.
By the time of bank deregulation in 1980, the bank started having big losses. In 1981, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the New York State Banking Department sought buyers for the bank. In October of that year, a participant in a meeting about possible buyers left material on the meeting table. This information was given to The New York Times, which printed the story.
In its final three days the bank lost $500 million in deposits out of its total of $1.5 billion due to a run on the bank. At the end of the third day the New York State Banking Department closed the bank, naming the FDIC as receiver. That same day Metropolitan Savings Bank of Brooklyn (now part of HSBC Bank USA) was named the new owner of the bank accounts.
Haier America purchased the Greenwich Savings Bank building in 2000 as its corporate headquarters. In 2002, Haier rechristened it The Haier Building.
An event management company leases several of the Haier Building's large historic rooms, which are operated as the venue Gotham Hall. The old main banking room, board room and executive office are rented out as the "Grand Ballroom", "Oak Room", and "Green Room", for corporate events, private parties such as weddings and receptions, and other functions.
In the movie remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008 film), the coordinates for the "Impact Location" that appears on the big screen (Lat 40.75136, Long -73.98712) falls on the The Haier Building. It is unknown if the writers intended to choose this location on purpose.
I knew that First Niagara is a regional bank based in Buffalo, New York, now with major operations in the state of Pennsylvania.
Highmark, as it turns out, is a non-profit health insurer base in Pittsburgh.
c1910 postcard view of Main Street in Elkhart, Indiana. Streetcars and a trolley car were crowding the street. The photographer was midway between Marion and Franklin Streets and looking south toward the Marion Street intersection when he took this photograph. The Bucklen Opera House was in the background at the Harrison Street intersection.
Very few businesses are identifiable, but two exceptions were the large GOLDMAN DRUGS sign north of Marion Street and THE GRIFFIN GROCERIES and MEAT business next door. The 1910 Sanborn™ fire insurance map set shows a drugstore and an adjacent grocery in that vicinity at 429 and 427 South Main Street, respectively. The 1904 Elkhart directory¹ listed Warren A. Griffin as the proprietor of a grocery at 427 South Main Street. That directory listed Frank J. Goldman as a druggist (with a soda fountain), but the address was 401 South Main Street. The 1901 map set shows a drugstore at that corner location and shows a jewelry business at 429 South Main Street. The 1910 map set included a note saying the two businesses at 401 and 403 South Main Street were being replaced by a bank. Based on the Sanborn™ map sets, it’s probable that the Goldman drugstore moved from 401 to 429 South Main Street around 1910.
A real photo postcard titled “Surface Car Terminal” presents a more detailed version of this same scene.
1. Elkhart Directory Company, Elkhart City Directory 1904-1905, Volume 1 (Elkhart, Indiana: Truth Print, 1904). Available online at archive.org/details/elkhartindianaci00unse_1.
From a private collection.
Copyright 2008-2014 by Hoosier Recollections. All rights reserved. This image is part of a creative package that includes the associated text, geodata and/or other information. Neither this package in its entirety nor any of the individual components may be downloaded, transmitted or reproduced without the prior written permission of Hoosier Recollections.
A scale rendition (which proportions are approximate) of the first time/temperature display mounted for the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn as located on Flatbush Avenue Extension on the same block as their 9 DeKalb Avenue branch (and, on the other side of the block, Junior's Restaurant). By what Artkraft Strauss records are in the New York Public Library, this would date to 1960. Most photos of this were so far away that figuring out the dimensions was difficult; however, as originally built (with controls by Time-O-Matic), this told the time, temperature and interest rates set by the bank. Based on blueprints and scale drawings, besides the time, temp and interest display, there were two sets of zippers (or as Artkraft called them, "motograms," suggesting the controls were also from Time-O-Matic rather than from Trans-Lux' "Flashcast"); each were 94 x 7, and all bulbs - PAR38's for the time (562 in total, 281 on each side), 40 watt A19's or A21's for the zippers (2,632 total, 1,316 for each side, 658 for each zipper) - were spaced 5.5" apart by column (vertically) and 6" by row (horizontally). Numerals for time and temperature were in a 9 x 13 layout, but the second lamp bank had extra lamps at the top and bottom for showing of fractions (1/4, 1/2, 3/4), and the third bank also had extra top and bottom bulbs to show the percent sign; a total of 281 bulbs were used therefor. (Per ad, with pertinent photos, in Signs of the Times magazine, December 1966.) The '7', alas, unlike with Time-O-Matic's other jump clocks, would be shaped in this configuration like an upside-down 'L'. Assembled, the metal sheets (both sides) would have laid out as 43' 3" x 10'. Would later be replaced (after about 1970) by another jump clock that told time and temperature only, in a 9 x 14 layout.
A scale rendition of the time and temperature display (not counting the outer frame) that was part of the Yellow Pages sign atop the Michigan Bell building in Detroit (address: 882 Oakman Boulevard, a.k.a. 14300 Woodrow Wilson Street, near the border of Highland Park). This clock, first installed in 1961, was part of the famed sign 'Find it Fast - YELLOW PAGES' (debuted two years before) which phone served as a weather beacon (red for warm weather, blue for cooler weather and yellow for no change; would blink for rain or snow) for those passing by this sign as they were travelling along the Lodge Freeway, but would be turned off in the 1980's and remain unused until it was finally dismantled in 2011.
An article on this sign in the June 1962 issue of Signs of the Times indicated that when originally put in, the clock had a total of 185 bulbs, suggesting: a) it initially only told the time, and b) did not have curvature for a '7' on the second lamp bank. That, plus bulbs on each end of the '1' at left to indicate if the temperature dipped below zero, appeared to have been later add-ons - and upped the bulb count for this clock to 192. Notice how the curvature differs on the second lamp bank (by a full quarter of an inch) from that on the first and third banks.
Based on pictures, it appears the light bulb columns and rows were spaced approx. 7" apart, with amber yellow PAR38 bulbs used (after all, it was the Yellow Pages being promoted on that sign). Here is a simulation of how the time would be flashed. No word on whether the temperature was accompanied by a degree sign on the third lamp bank or not.
As I said in the previous photo, trams nowadays carry rather "global" advertisements, quite a departure from the traditional oldie advertisements that cater to housewives.
LGT is a private bank based in Liechtenstein.
Rogue Trader is a 1999 drama film directed by James Dearden about former derivatives broker Nick Leeson and the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank. Based on Leeson's 1996 book
Lego bank, based on the Kensington Bank in Philadelphia by Frank Furness. A photo of the real building is here: www.flickr.com/photos/repowers/119654607/in/set-720575940...
浙江興業銀行 天津 The National Commercial Bank Limited , Tientsin
Information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Commercial_Bank
The National Commercial Bank Limited (Chinese: 浙江興業銀行;simplified Chinese: 浙江兴业银行) was a bank based in Hong Kong. It is now merged to Bank of China (Hong Kong).
[edit] History
1907: Established in Hangzhou by Chekiang Railway Company (Chinese: 浙江省鐵路公司).
1915: Moved headquarter to Shanghai.
1946: Established Hong Kong branches.
1980: Moved headquarter to Beijing.
1989: Became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of China Group.
2001: Merged to form Bank of China (Hong Kong).
This image is excerpted from a U.S. GAO report:
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-105
SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT PROGRAMS: Treasury Continues to Enhance Performance Measurement and Evaluation but Could Better Communicate and Update Results
a) Treasury has assessed lending by SBLF banks using three different comparison groups of non-SBLF banks: (1) "Small and medium-sized banks" includes banks with less than $10 billion in assets and located in jurisdictions in which SBLF banks are headquartered. (2) "Peer group banks" includes banks matched to SBLF banks based on size, geography, and asset quality. (3) "Propensity score matched banks" includes banks matched to SBLF banks using a statistical technique that takes into account a wide range of financial and economic characteristics and ensures that the comparison group is as similar as possible to SBLF banks. This third technique is the only method that estimates the impact of the SBLF program.
The Hungarian National Bank (Magyar Nemzeti Bank) is the central bank of Hungary. The principal aim of the bank is to retain price stability. It is also responsible for issuing the national currency, the forint, controlling the cash circulation, setting the Central Bank base rate, publishing official exchange rates and managing the national reserves of foreign currency and gold to influence exchange rates. It controls the country’s monetary policy.
The building of the Hungarian National Bank is located in Liberty Square, in the Inner City of Budapest. It can be found next to the building of the US Embassy.
Stagecoach in London (17200, V363 OWC, Bow/Fairfield Road (BW)-based) on borrowed time at Waterloo Bridge (South Bank), London
Now operating for Stagecoach Manchester, Stockport/Daw Bank-based, mainly working on routes 383/384 Romiley Circular.
While we were walking on the streets of Chicago we noticed a Banco Popular. It's a bank based in the Dominican Republic, my hometown.
The Pound Sterling is the currency of the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies (which are not part of the UK) of Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man. The Sterling Zone is unusual in that the main Central Bank ~ the Bank of England is not the sole body permitted to issue Sterling Banknotes. This photograph shows all of the Sterling Notes that I have in my possession.
My collection does not presently include Sterling notes issued by: -
The Isle of Man
Bank of Scotland
Clydesdale Bank (based in Glasgow)
and the following Northern Irish Banks: -
Bank of Ireland
First Trust Bank
Northern Bank
Ulster Bank
Trying to spend Guernsey or Jersey Notes in England (outside London) can be interesting. One reason given to me in Oxford for refusing a Guernsey bank note was that the word 'Sterling' was not printed on the note. This is interesting as Bank of England notes do not have the word 'Sterling' printed on them! In fact it is only Scottish and Northern Irish Bank Notes that promise to pay you 'X Pounds Sterling'. Using this logic Bank of England notes should be refused as well ~ as they only promise to pay you 'X Pounds'.