This book is a cutting-edge exploration of the UK commercial banking industry, as reflected primarily in the experience of the four main clearing banks: Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and NatWest. What will the industry look like in the future? What strategies, cultures and organisational forms will distinguish the survivors from the non-survivors? Will the dominant form be the highly diversified, global, financial supermarket, the so-called universal bank, the more focused niche player, both, or some other type? To answer these questions, David Rogers draws upon very high level access to the leading players in this evolving industry.

DAVID ROGERS is Professor and Chairman of the Leonard N. Stern School of Business of New York University. He is the author of a book on, 'The History of American Banking' and in the research for this book he has enjoyed a very high level of access to the key players in the UK Banking industry.

PART I: THE PROBLEM AND THE SETTING Commercial Banking Worldwide: A Declining Industry British and US Banking: Similarities and Differences Recent History and Strategic Adaptations PART II: THE FOUR CLEARERS Lloyds: A Deviant Case, Rejecting Universal Banking Barclays: The Quaker Squirearchy of British Banking Barclays: Is Transformation Possible? NatWest: Another Global Bank Gone Home NatWest: Re-Inventing Itself Midland: Merger after Near Fatal Decline PART III: IS UNIVERSAL BANKING AN OPTION? Diversification and Synergies The Future of British Banking