| Description | Most papers fall in the period 1929-1931 and appear to stem from a concern by the Principal, Kenneth Oswald Peppiatt, to establish the extent of the involvement, through endorsing bills or acceptance business, of accepting houses in firms, mostly foreign, which had failed. Included are details of the Sicmat failure which led to pressure for a central credit register. Early material includes notes from branches about failures of firms operating in their areas, sometimes of branch customers. Accounts of failures and banks' involvement in failed companies are mainly in the form of press-cuttings and notes of interviews with bankers. |