It is well known that banks in England did not publish their 'true' profits until 1969. This article discusses the problems encountered in establishing the banks' 'true' profits and capital for earlier periods from their published accounts and unpublished archival sources. Definitions of profits...

There is a perception that, in the British banks which dominated the industry for much of the twentieth century, management accounting was limited in scope and contributed to a general inefficiency in these institutions. Various official reports published from the 1960s until very recently have...