THE MIDLAND.
The Midland Bank which was destined to become the largest bank in the country and, indeed, at one time the largest bank in the world, was founded in Birmingham in 1836, as the Birmingham and Midland Bank, with a paid- uP capital of only £28,000. Its success, however, was immediate and under successive able managers its import- ance grew steadily. In 1879 the bank had about £2,000,000 in deposits with only four branches. Immediately before the War the deposits had grown to £94,000,000, and t he branches to 867, but by the end of 1931 the deposits reached the colossal total of £362,000,000, while the total assets were about £407,000,000 and there were 2,128 branches. No bank, perhaps, achieved more in the way of the absorption of other institutions, that process being especially pronounced during the period of the manage- ment and chairmanship of the late Sir Edward Holden. Moreover, the bank, under his leadership, was a pioneer in the matter of the undertaking of foreign exchange business by the joint stock banks.
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