 Avoiding toxic assets and ensuring bank stability: English commercial bank investments, 1880-1910Mae Baker, Caroline Eadsforth and Michael Collins Business History, 2009, vol. 51, issue 6, 854-874 Abstract: New estimates are made of the relative importance of investments within the banks' assets structure, of the significance of bank investments in the market as a whole, of the composition of those investments, and of how those changed in a period that experienced a significant increase in the scale, liquidity and diversity in Britain's organised secondary capital markets. Investment holdings in the total market and amongst insurance companies are used as benchmarks. One main finding is that there was a great deal of variation in the size of bank investments relative to total assets, with no evidence of a 'norm' investments ratio. Another finding is that although there is some evidence of greater diversity over time, conservatism - and especially the continued heavy reliance on public sector securities - is more evident. Overall, there was a commitment to a high liquidity, risk-averse approach to portfolio management which contributed to bank stability and limited the financing of the private sector. Keywords: banking history; investments; capital markets; bank stability; portfolio management (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:bushst:v:51:y:2009:i:6:p:854-874 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from DOI: 10.1080/00076790903268261 Access Statistics for this article Business History is currently edited by Professor John Wilson and Professor Steven Toms More articles in Business History from Taylor & Francis Journals |
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