National Bank of Scotland Ltd

This co-partnership bank was established in 1825 as National Banking Company of Scotland, with an authorised capital of £5m, and attracted more shareholders than any other bank in Britain. Its first governor was the Duke of Roxburghe and its first chairman was Alexander Henderson. It opened 13 branches in its first year, began to circulate notes through the offices of its provincial shareholders (£133,000 in circulation by 1826), and acquired head office premises in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh. In 1831 the bank received a royal charter, and changed its name to National Bank of Scotland.

It continued to expand, acquiring Commercial Banking Co of Aberdeen in 1833 and Perth Union Banking Co in 1836. In 1843 a bid to take over the Glasgow & Ship Bank (est. 1809) failed, leading National Bank of Scotland to open its own Glasgow office later the same year. In 1844 it acquired the short-lived Bank of Glasgow.

In 1864 National Bank of Scotland was the first Scottish bank to open an office in London. In 1882 it registered as a limited liability company. From 1881 until the outbreak of the First World War, it was - in terms of liabilities, deposits and advances - second only to Bank of Scotland among the Scottish banks.

In 1918 National Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Bank Ltd (est. 1765), bankers of London, building on an existing foreign exchange connection, reached an agreement by which Lloyds acquired the entire capital of National Bank of Scotland. Both banks, apart from an exchange of directors, remained entirely separate. National Bank of Scotland continued to trade successfully during the inter-war years, with a new head office building, commissioned in 1936, opened in 1947. In 1946 the bank introduced its first mobile banking service on the Isle of Lewis.

In 1959 Lloyds Bank approached Commercial Bank of Scotland, which was seeking amalgamation with a larger partner, offering to surrender its ownership of National Bank of Scotland for a stake in a new, merged bank. The proposal was readily accepted and resulted in the formation of National Commercial Bank of Scotland later that year.

Branches: In total, the bank opened 200 branches and sub-branches throughout Scotland between 1825 and 1959, and five offices in England (in London and Berwick). In 1959 198 branches were operating.

Published histories

• The National Bank of Scotland: A Short History of the Bank (Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1947)
• The National Bank of Scotland Centenary, 1825-1925 (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1925)
• SG Checkland, Scottish Banking: A History, 1695-1973 (Glasgow: Collins, 1975)

Our archive holdings

A summary list of our archival records of National Bank of Scotland Ltd can be found on the Archives Hub website. 

Summary of archive holdings elsewhere

• University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections: Photocopies of extracts from minutes, annual reports, letterbook, balance sheets 1825-1958 (Ref: UGD 129/2/3), annual reports 1879-1925 (Ref: UDG 94/10/3)
• Bank of England Archive: Governor's file re bank amalgamations, including merger of National Bank of Scotland with Commercial Bank of Scotland to form National Commercial Bank of Scotland 1956-9 (Ref: G1/12)