There was a time, 50 years ago, when this would not matter, much. Banks were at the time relatively small businesses. They did not appear high in the FTSE.
50 years ago is – *checks calendar* – 1973
FTSE100 was launched in Jan 1984.
The precursor, the FT 30, deliberately and specifically excluded financial sector corporates like banks. Tho’ that did change and NatWest, Lloyds, RBS all joined it.
So, currently FTSE100 has 5 banks in it – Lloyds, NatWest, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Barclays. Or 5% of it. FT30 had, by the end of it, 3 banks, or 10% of it.
Banks are currently less of the stock market index than they were.
So we can add to the list of things he does not know about the secondary banking crisis of 1973, the Great Depression…….
Also most people tended to be paid in cash. I mean what did all those Sweeney storylines involve ?
My dad probably never had more than a £100 in the bank.
Banks and finance companies accounted for 15.4% of the market cap of the 100 largest (i.e FTSE-equivalent) UK companies at end-1899, and 9.7% at end-1950.
At the start of the First World War, the Bank of England had a bank run on its hands which could have turned out comparable to the 1973 crisis, not helped by the fact that it was dealing with hundreds of small banks rather than just 4 or 5 major clearers
Interesting to read wkpd on the Secondary Banking crisis of 1973
“The causes remain a source of debate. Some blame the lax regulation of lenders and policy-driven inflationary pressures (the ‘Barber Boom’, named after Chancellor of the Exchequer Anthony Barber), which failed in its target of lowering the high unemployment rate. A sudden tightening of credit (interest rates were raised to 13% in October 1973) was laid at the feet of the Bank of England.”
The fools at the BoE never seem to learn