Lloyds Bank (Europe)

Lloyds Bank (Europe) (1911-71), established in London, was a past part-owned constituent of NatWest Group.

Brief history

This overseas bank was established in 1911 as Lloyds Bank (France) Ltd after Lloyds Bank Ltd acquired the Paris bank Armstrong & Co. In 1917 National Provincial Bank of England acquired a 50% shareholding in the bank, which was thereafter known as Lloyds Bank (France) & National Provincial Bank (France) Ltd. In 1919 the bank was renamed Lloyds & National Provincial (Foreign) Bank Ltd.

By 1938 the bank had 14 branches and deposits of £12m. In 1955 National Provincial Bank sold its interest to Lloyds Bank and the bank was renamed Lloyds Bank (Foreign). By the 1960s the bank had branches in London, Paris, Biarritz, Bordeaux, Le Havre, Lille, Nice, Roubaix, St Jean de Luz, Cannes, Brussels, Antwerp, Geneva, Zurich and Monte Carlo and was flourishing with the development of the profitable Eurodollar market. The bank was renamed Lloyds Bank (Europe) in 1964. In 1971 the bank merged with Bank of London & South America Ltd (est. 1862) to form Lloyds & Bolsa International Bank Ltd, known as Lloyds Bank International Ltd from 1974.

Published histories

G Jones, ‘Lombard Street on the Riviera. British Clearing Banks and Europe 1900-1960’, Business History, 24 (1982)
JR Winton, Lloyds Bank 1918-69 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982)

Summary of our archive holdings

Our archival records of Lloyds Bank (Europe) have the reference code LBI.

For help understanding words used here, check our glossary of banking record types (PDF 68 KB).

correspondence: general 1919-29, 1934-54, chairman's 1932-55
annual reports 1924-53
memoranda and articles of association 1925-6
presscuttings 1925, 1954
marketing posters 1920s
balance sheets 1931-54
papers re legal cases 1934-8
income tax memoranda 1935-43
reports re currency and cash position 1936-7
inspection reports 1937-9, 1950
reports on bank in Paris 1935, 1938
list of authorised signatories 1946
reports and correspondence on Belgian subsidiary 1952-4

Summary of archive holdings elsewhere

Lloyds Banking Group Archives: Certificate of incorporation 1911; agreement with Armstrong & Co 1911; letterbook 1911-4; profit and loss ledgers 1911-38; general meeting minute book 1911-62; directors’ meeting minute books 1911-68; share register 1911-71; register of directors 1911-73; agreements with National Provincial Bank 1917, 1954; audited balance sheets 1917-55; various branch records incl. profit and loss accounts and half-yearly reports 1918-70; head office general ledgers 1922-40; agenda books and papers 1926-71; private minute book 1956-69