THE ENGLISH-Scorrisu BANKING ALLIANCE.
It was almost a foregone conclusion that the offer by the Royal Bank of Scotland to acquire the shares of Williams Deacon's Bank by means of an exchange of stock, to which I referred in the Spectator of August 2nd, would be promptly accepted. As a matter of fact, the acceptances were in excess of the 85 per cent. required by the Royal Bank of Scotland and at a special General Court of Pioprietors of the Royal Bank, held in Edinburgh on the 20th- inst., the proprietors unanimously carried the resolution increasing the capital from £2,500,000 to £3,800,000 by the creation of additional stock to the extent of £1,300,000, to be issued, so far as required, in exchange for the shares of Williams Deacon'S Bank, Ltd. The Duke of Buceleuch in an interesting speech emphasized the fact that the Royal Bank of Scotland would always be essentially a Scottish Institution, but in the matter of expansion of the bank's activities he said that he thought opportunities were more especially presented in the south and the alliance with the old institution known as Williams Deacon's Bank, Ltd., was conceived with that view. The Duke of Buccleuch also drew atten- tion to the fact that as the new stock was issued at a premium there would be a still further strengthening of the already strong reserve of the Royal Bank, while he must have had a peculiar pleasure in notifying personally to the pro- prietors what had already been announced publicly, namely, that the business carried on by the Bank of England for over eighty years at their Western Branch in Burlington Gardens, London, was now being transferred to the Royal Bank of Scotland.
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