European Banking Clubs in the 1960s: A Flawed Strategy

European banking clubs in the 1960s and 1970s began as a movement imbued with the idealism and promise of European integration. The strategic choices which they represented, however, were ultimately doomed to failure. This paper will consider some of the reasons for the founding of the banking clubs, and consider their place in the rapidly changing international financial environment of the late 1960s. It will assess the background to, and reasons for, British banks' involvement in these institutions. Using previously unavailable archival material, it will be possible to explore the relationship between the Midland Bank and the first of the clubs, the European Advisory Committee. It will be suggested that the decision to create the relationship was a response to the market conditions which existed at the time, but that the demise was inevitable.