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The Bank of Scotland was established by an act of the Scottish Parliament on 17 July 1695, opening for business in February 1696. The founding act permitted the bank's directors to raise a nominal capital of £1,200,000 Scots (£100,000 Sterling), granted the bank a monopoly on banking in Scotland for 21 years, gave the Proprietors (shareholders) limited liability, and the final clause (repealed only in 1920) made all foreign-born Proprietors naturalised Scotsmen "to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever".
The Bank of Scotland was the first bank in EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se to successfully issue paper currencyFor exchange rates, see here. A currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and services. It is a form of money, where money is defined as a medium of exchange rather than e. a store of value. A currency zone is a country or region redeemable for cash on demand (which was an extremely useful facility given the poor state of the Scottish coinage at the end of the seventeenth century). The right to issue banknotes has been maintained to the present day. Following the Union of Scotland and EnglandThe Acts of Union were twin Acts of Parliament passed in 1707 (going into effect on 26 March) in the Scottish and the English Parliaments. The effect was twofold: to create a new Kingdom of Great Britain (though the name was used on occasion since 1604 to in 1707Events March 26 Act of Union with Scotland becomes law, making the separate Kingdoms of England and Scotland into one country, the Kingdom of Great Britain. April 25 Allied army is defeated by borbonic army at Almansa ( Spain) in the War of the Spanish Su, the bank supervised the reminting of the old Scottish coinage into Sterling.
The bank took the lead in establishing the security and stability of the entire Scottish banking system, which became more important after the collapse of the Ayr Bank in 1772. The Western Bank collapsed in 1857, and the Bank of Scotland stepped in with the other Scottish banks to ensure that all Western Bank's notes were paid.
In 1826Events February 11 University College London is founded, under the name University of London''. April 1 Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine. June 14- 15 The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny there was outrage in Scotland at the attempt of the British Parliament to prevent the production of banknotes of less than five pounds face value. Sir Walter Scott wrote a series of letters to the Edinburgh Weekly Journal under the pseudonym "Malachi Malagrowther" which provoked such a response that the government was forced to relent and allow the Scottish banks to continue printing £1 notes. For this reason Sir Walter still appears on all Bank of Scotland notes.
In 1959Events January-February January 1 Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. January 1 Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when forces of Fidel Castro advance January 2 CBS Radio cuts four soap operas: Bac Bank of Scotland became the first British bank to install a computer to process accounts centrally.
By the 1990s the Bank of Scotland was the result of a large number of amalgamations, the most important being with the Union Bank of Scotland in 1955, and the British Linen Bank in 1971. In 2001 the Bank agreed a merger with Halifax Group to produce one of the UK's largest clearing banks, HBOS. Bank of Scotland also acquired ICC Bank in the Republic of Ireland later that same year, and has since relaunched its Irish business as Bank of Scotland (Ireland).