Lancashire

Lancashire:

The earliest recorded history commences with a deed concerning Far Banks, made in the reign of Henry II in 1154. It relates to a Guide House for travellers who forded the River Ribble from the Fylde to North Meols. At this time the area was on the most northern fringe of the ancient division of West Derby and the local area was called meles, meaning sand dunes.

The area was isolated to the north and west by the Ribble estuary, to the south by a chain of barren sand hills, to the east by a lake called Martin Mere – which at the time was the largest lake in England covering 3,132 acres (12.67 km2).

The biggest coastal disaster in the area was in 1719 when 5,000 acres of the Ribble estuary, from Crossens to Hesketh Bank and Tarleton were flooded, when the sea banks broke. A total of 47 houses were carried away by the tidal flood. Nine people drowned and cattle, sheep and crops were lost.

'Banks' is believed to have been named for the many artificial embankments built in the north of the village to protect it from winter floods from the River Ribble and the tide. The old embankments can be seen when entering Banks at Marsh Road and at the end of George's Lane. However, these embankments became redundant when the River Ribble retreated in the 1900s and larger ones are in place further north creating more farmland. Local people refer to the village as Bonks /ˈbɒŋks/; retained from the Middle English pronunciation.

Banks is a large coastal village in Lancashire, England. It lies south of the Ribble estuary and four miles (6 km) north-east of Southport. The village is administered by West Lancashire Borough Council, and by North Meols parish council for parochial matters. It is in the South Ribble parliamentary constituency. According to the 2001 census, the population of Banks was 3,792.

Banks is the largest of the villages in the parish of North Meols on the West Lancashire coastal plain. Like most of them, it was primarily an agricultural community due to the excellent soil, although there was fishing activity for many years. Production of flowers and vegetables is common on the farms surrounding the village; however the proximity of Southport and Preston have led to Banks' expansion as a dormitory town for commuters.

Governance:

Banks is part of the South Ribble parliamentary constituency and represented by the Conservative MP Lorraine Fullbrook .

Banks is one of the two remaining villages within the historical civil parish of North Meols. At local government level, North Meols is administered by West Lancashire Borough Council. North Meols is currently represented by the Conservative John Baldock, and the Conservative Paul Blane.

Jillian Rose Banks

Jillian Rose Banks:

Jillian Rose Banks was born in Orange County, California. Banks started writing songs at the age of fifteen. She taught herself piano when she received a keyboard from a friend to help her through her parents' divorce. She says she "felt very alone and helpless. I didn't know how to express what I was feeling or who to talk to.

Banks used the audio distribution website SoundCloud to put out her music before securing a record deal. Her friend Lily Collins used her contacts to pass along her music to people in the industry; specifically Katy Perry's DJ Yung Skeeter, and she began working with the label Good Years Recordings. Her first official single, called "Before I Ever Met You" was released in February 2013. The song which had been on a private SoundCloud page ended up being played by BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe. Banks released her first EP Fall Over by IAMSOUND Records and Good Years Recordings. Billboard called her a "magnetic writer with songs to obsess over." Banks released her second EP called London by Harvest Records and Good Years Recordings in 2013 to positive reviews from music critics, receiving a 78 from Metacritic. Her song "Waiting Game" from the EP was featured in the 2013 Victoria's Secret holiday commercial. In November 2015 she released a new single titled, "Better". She did hint on her website that a new album was in the making.

In late 2013, she received nominations for awards from both the BBC and MTV. She was nominated for a Sound of... award by the BBC and a Brand New Nominee by MTV. Shazam included her on its list of "2014 Acts to Watch" and she was named to the iTunes list of "New Artists for 2014". Banks was artist of the week for Vogue in August 2013 where they wrote that her songs "perfectly capture a feeling of being lost and powerless in the world." Banks has been tipped by more than a dozen media outlets as the artist to watch in 2014, including Spin calling London the "Album You Gotta Hear in 2014" and being named as one of Spotify's Artists Under the Spotify Spotlight for 2014. Additional accolades came from The Boston Globe, Fuse and The Huffington Post.

Banks was the opening act for The Weeknd during his fall 2013 tour. The tour was international with dates in the United States and the United Kingdom. After finishing the tour with The Weeknd, she announced her own tour which begun in the United Kingdom during March 2014. Banks was also a featured performer at the Coachella festival, taking place in April 2014, Bonnaroo and Open'er Festival in July 2014. In January 2015, Banks was part of the lineup for the 2015 St. Jerome's Laneway Festival, which toured Adelaide, Auckland, Brisbane, Detroit, Fremantle, Melbourne, Singapore and Sydney.

Her debut album, Goddess was released on September 5, 2014 and charted within the top 20 of several countries, including the UK, Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden. In the US, the album debuted at number 12, selling 25,000 copies in its first week of release. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised her sonic ambition and the album's raw sound. It currently holds a score of 74/100 on Metacritic. Thus far, the album has been supported by the release of four singles: "Brain", "Goddess", "Drowning" and "Beggin for Thread". "Drowning" peaked at number 48 in Billboard's Rock Digital Songs chart, whilst "Beggin for Thread" peaked at number 11 on the US Alternative Songs chart, and at number 80 and 64 in Australia and Germany (respectively). The track "Waiting Game" was featured in the film Divergent, which was released in March 2014. Along with "Waiting Game," "You Should Know Where I'm Coming From" were featured in the October 9th, 2014 episode of Grey's Anatomy, also the track "Goddess" was featured in the March 12, 2015 episode. "You Should Know Where I'm Coming From" was also featured on the ninth episode of Red Band Society.

Jillian Rose Banks (born June 16, 1988), known simply as Banks (often stylized as BANKS), is an American singer and songwriter from Orange County, California. She releases music under Harvest Records, Good Years Recordings and IAMSOUND Records imprints of the major label Universal Music Group.

She has toured internationally with The Weeknd and was also nominated for the Sound of 2014 award by the BBC and an MTV Brand New Nominee in 2014. On May 3, 2014, Banks was dubbed as an "Artist to Watch" by FoxWeekly.

Banco de Bogotá

Banco de Bogotá:

Founded in 1870, Banco de Bogotá is the oldest commercial banking institution in Colombia, and operates through approximately 650 branches, five corporate service centers and a banking attention center in the country. On a national level, it also operates through subsidiaries: Corporacion Financiera Colombiana S.A., an investment bank; Almacenes Generales de Deposito "Almaviva S.A.", a products supply logistics company; Sociedad Fiduciaria Bogotá "Fidubogotá S.A." and Fiduciaria del Comercio "Fiducomercio S.A.", trust and portfolio investment companies; Leasing Bogotá S.A., a leasing company; Valores Bogotá S.A., a provider of brokerage services; and Fondos de Pensiones y Cesantias Porvenir, a pensions and suspensions administrator. It also owns bank subsidiaries in Panama and the Bahamas. In the United States, Banco de Bogotá operates two agencies agency, one in New York, New York, and in Miami, Florida. Grupo Aval, a holding company which is one of the largest and most influential financial entities in Colombia, owns a majority of the Bank's outstanding voting shares. It's actual president is Alejandro Figueroa who has been in this position since 1989.


On June 20, 2006, Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Inc. announced the successful implementation of its retail lending software package, Advanced Lending Solution (ALS) – Servicing Manager at Banco de Bogotá. The efforts of the bank’s technical consultants and FIS experts enabled Banco de Bogotá to be the first financial institution in its market to introduce a new personal loan product, "Prestamo Personal Libre Destino."

Banco de Bogotá has utilized FIS’ deposits, savings, financial management and architecture to support its retail banking operations since 1988. Following a change in local banking regulations in the fourth quarter of 2005, the bank needed to upgrade its lending system quickly to launch a new consumer loan product into the market. Banco de Bogotá introduced the new product in February, ahead of its competitors, and captured a significant share of the market.

The bank selected FIS’ ALS-Servicing Manager, a customizable loan processing application that supports customer and account servicing requirements for the life of the loan. The Banco de Bogotá team quickly adjusted the features for the Prestamo Personal Libre Destino, using ALS-Servicing Manager’s real-time product parameter facility, to select processing options that addressed interest accruals, late charges and payment posting options. The Bank expected to attract 3,000 new customers a month with this new personal loan product. It is also planning a follow-up phase, which will utilize ALS-Servicing Manager for a new line of credit product and add additional inquiry transaction functionality for the teller system.

Banco de Bogotá is supervised by the Colombian Superintendency of Banking, which is primarily responsible for the regulation and supervision of Colombian financial institutions, including their foreign offices, subsidiaries, and affiliates. The Superintendency issues and promulgates supervisory regulations concerning accounting requirements, asset quality, management, operations, capital adequacy, loan classification and loan loss provision standards. In addition, the Superintendency monitors compliance by financial institutions with applicable laws and regulations and may order preventive measures and impose sanctions on financial institutions.

Bank of Toronto

Bank of Toronto:

In July 1856, the Bank of Toronto opened its offices at 78 Church Street, Toronto, with a staff of three and immediately began development of a provincial network of branches. In 1860, it opened its first branch outside of Ontario (then as Canada West), in Montreal, Canada East.

The Bank of Toronto established itself as an efficient, profitable, but essentially conservative bank through the 19th century. It maintained a very high reserve against its capital and enjoyed the highest share price of any bank in Canada. Growth was very slow and deliberate, with a few new branches opened in emerging regional centres. Core customers remained farmers, merchants, and processors of farm products (millers, brewers, distillers).

With the maturing of the Canadian economy and the opening of northern Ontario and the West in the 1880s and 1890s, the banks became more aggressive in loans to resource industries, utilities, and manufacturing. In 1899, the Bank of Toronto opened a branch in the British Columbia mining town of Rossland. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the banks rapidly expanded their branch networks in central Canada and across the west.

To mark their rise as significant national institutions, the Bank of Toronto moved into a large new head office building at the corner of King and Bay Streets in Toronto in 1913.

World War I brought new challenges for the two banks when they were called upon to finance war expenditures and to support the innovation of war bonds marketed to the general public. Half of the staff of the two banks served in the armed forces.

Except for some contraction in the western provinces due to drought, the decade following the war was one of expansion and increasing profitability due to resource development and industrial expansion. The bank weathered the storm of depression in the 1930s without great difficulty, despite a decline in earnings. Like all Canadian banks, they endured criticism of its credit policies and resisted the introduction of a central bank to control the money supply and advise on fiscal policy. Ultimately the Bank of Canada was established and the banks relinquished their right to issue their own currency.

The coming of the Second World War involved the banks, once again, in the marketing of war bonds and in participation in the control of foreign exchange, rationing, and other financial war measures. Approximately 500 staff, or almost half the total, entered the armed forces.

The Bank of Toronto emerged from the war in 1945 stronger than ever, with assets more than doubled since 1939. With the post-war boom they became more active in business lending and in the penetration of new markets. However, they quickly realized that the costs of expansion and competition with much larger rivals made their objectives difficult to realize. Neither bank had engaged in acquisitions or mergers in order to grow, but both determined that a union with a bank of equal size would place them in a much stronger position to take advantage of the opportunities of the post-war economy.

The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank that was founded in 1855 by a group of grain dealers and flour millers. On February 1, 1955, it merged with The Dominion Bank to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank. Its first president was James Grant Chewett.

In 1954, negotiations began between the Bank of Toronto and the Dominion Bank, and by the end of the year, an amalgamation agreement was reached. In their brief to the Minister of Finance, the banks stated: “It is more burdensome for a small bank to keep pace with the development of our country than for a large bank, with the result that the effective growth and comparative influence of smaller banks will probably in the future decline in comparison with that of the larger banks.”

On November 1, 1954, Canada's minister of finance announced that the amalgamation was accepted and shareholders were asked for their approval. This was forthcoming in December and on February 1, 1955, the Bank of Toronto and The Dominion Bank became the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

The building at 78 Church Street was listed on the City of Toronto Heritage Property Inventory on August 14, 1991, in hopes of preserving some of its historical physical attributes.

Agricultural Bank of China

Agricultural Bank of China:

Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC, simplified Chinese: 中国农业银行; traditional Chinese: 中國農業銀行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Nóngyè Yínháng), also known as AgBank or 农行 Nóngháng, is one of the "Big Four" banks in the People's Republic of China. It was founded in 1951, and has its headquarters in Dongcheng District, Beijing.It has branches throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Seoul, and Singapore.

ABC has 320 million retail customers, 2.7 million corporate clients, and nearly 24,000 branches. It is China's third largest lender by assets. ABC went public in mid-2010, fetching the world's biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) at the time,since overtaken by another Chinese company, Alibaba. As of 2011, it ranks 8th among the Top 1000 World Banks, meanwhile In 2015, it ranks 3rd in Forbes’ 13th annual Global 2000 ranking of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world.

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, ABC has been formed and abolished several times. In 1951, two banks of the Republic of China, Farmers Bank of China and Cooperation Bank, merged to form the Agricultural Cooperation Bank, which ABC regards as its ancestor. However, the bank was merged into People's Bank of China, the central bank in 1952. The first bank bearing the name Agricultural Bank of China was founded in 1955, but it was merged into the central bank in 1957. In 1963 the Chinese government formed another agricultural bank which was also merged into the central bank two years later. Today's Agricultural Bank of China was founded in February 1979. It was restructured to form a holding company called Agricultural Bank of China Limited. It was listed on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges in July 2010.

In April 2007, ABC was the victim of the largest bank robbery in Chinese history. This occurred when two vault managers at the Handan branch of the bank in Hebei province embezzled almost 51 million yuan (US$7.5 million).

In 2012, ABC started a project to migrate to the Avaloq Banking System.

During the 2013 Korean crisis, the Agricultural Bank of China halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

ABC was the last of the "big four" banks in China to go public. In 2010, A shares and H shares of Agricultural Bank of China were listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange respectively. Each share was set to cost between 2.7RMB and 3.3RMB per share. H shares were set to cost between HK$2.88 and HK$3.48 per share. The final share price for the IPO launch was issued on July 7, 2010. On completion in August 2010 it became the world's biggest initial public offering (IPO) surpassing the one set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in 2006 of US$21.9 billion. This record has since been beaten by another Chinese company, Alibaba, in 2014.

ABC raised US$19.21 billion in an IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai on July 6, 2010, before overallotment options were exercised. On August 13, 2010, ABC officially completed the world's largest initial public offering, raising a total of $22.1 billion after both Shanghai and Hong Kong's over-allotments were fully exercised. The IPO was once thought to be able to raise US$30 billion, but weaker market sentiment dampened the value. Despite a 15-month low for the Chinese benchmark index, the IPO was said to have gone smoothly.

CICC, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley led the Hong Kong offering, with JPMorgan, Macquarie, Deutsche Bank and ABC's own securities unit also involved. CICC, Citic Securities, Galaxy and Guotai Junan Securities handled the Shanghai portion. ABC sold about 40% of the Shanghai offering to 27 strategic investors including China Life Insurance and China State Construction. They were subject to lock-up periods of 12–18 months. Eleven cornerstone investors were selected for its Hong Kong share offering, including Qatar Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority, taking a combined $5.45 billion worth of shares.

China Construction Bank

China Construction Bank:

China Construction Bank Corporation (CCB; simplified Chinese: 中国建设银行; traditional Chinese: 中國建設銀行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Jiànshè Yínháng; often abbreviated as 建行; SSE: 601939, SEHK: 0939, OTC Pink: CICHY) is one of the "big four" banks in the People's Republic of China. In 2015 CCB was the 2nd largest bank in the world by market capitalization and 6th largest company in the world. The bank has approximately 13,629 domestic branches. In addition, it maintains overseas branches in Barcelona, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, New York, Seoul, Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland, and a wholly owned subsidiary in London. Its total assets reached CN¥ 8.7 trillion in 2009. Its headquarters is in Xicheng District, Beijing.

CCB was founded on 1 October 1954 under the name of People's Construction Bank of China (Chinese: 中国人民建设银行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiànshè Yínháng), and later changed to China Construction Bank on 26 March 1996.

In January 2002, CCB Chairman Wang Xuebing resigned from the bank after being charged with accepting bribes while he was employed with Bank of China; he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. In March 2005, his successor, Zhang Enzhao, resigned for "personal reasons". Just prior to his resignation, he had been charged in a lawsuit with accepting a US$1 million bribe. He was later sentenced to 15 years in jail in connection with the case.

China Construction Bank Corporation was formed as a joint-stock commercial bank in September 2004 as a result of a separation procedure undertaken by its predecessor, China Construction Bank, under the PRC Company Law. Following the China Banking Regulatory Committee's approval on 14 September 2004, the next day the bank (Jianyin) became a separate legal entity, owned by the Chinese government holding company, Central Huijin Investment Company or simply Huijin.

During the 2013 Korean crisis, the China Construction Bank halted business with a North Korean bank accused by the United States of financing Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs.

In 2015, China Construction Bank ranks the 2nd in Forbes’ 13th annual Global 2000 ranking of the biggest, most powerful and most valuable companies in the world.

Investment by Bank of America.

In 2005, Bank of America acquired a 9% stake in China Construction Bank for US$3 billion. It represented the company's largest foray into China's growing banking sector. Bank of America currently has offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and sought to expand its Chinese business as a result of this deal.

On or about 5 June 2008, Bank of America purchased 6 billion H-shares for approximately HK$2.42 per share using call options under a formula in the initial acquisition agreement. Bank of America now holds about 25.1 billion H-shares, representing about 10.75% of CCB's issued shares. Bank of America may not sell the 6 billion shares that it purchased from Huijin using the call option before 29 August 2011 without prior consent of CCB. Bank of America still has the option to purchase additional shares.

In May 2009, speculation was raised that US$7.3 billion worth of CCB shares had been sold by BoA, to help bolster capital during stress testing.

On August 29, 2011, Bank of America announced it would sell approximately half its stake in CCB (13.1 billion shares worth about US$8.3 billion) to an undisclosed group of investors.

In September 2013, Bank of America sold its remaining stake in the China Construction Bank for as much as $1.5 billion.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China:

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC; simplified Chinese: 中国工商银行; traditional Chinese: 中國工商銀行; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gōngshāng Yínháng, more commonly just 工行 Gōngháng) is a Chinese multinational banking company, and the largest bank in the world by total assets and by market capitalization. It is one of China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks (the other three being the Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank). It was founded as a limited company on January 1, 1984. As of June 2015, it had assets worth US$3.616 trillion. Generally considered the largest bank in the world by assets; it is the first Chinese bank to achieve such a feat. It ranks number 1 in The Banker's Top 1000 World Banks ranking, and first on the Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's biggest public companies.

World's largest IPO (at the time):

ICBC was simultaneously listed on both the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange on 27 October 2006. It was the world's largest IPO at that time valued at US$21.9 billion, surpassing the previous record US$18.4 billion IPO by Japan's NTT DoCoMo in 1998.[14] In 2010, AgBank broke ICBC's IPO record when it raised $22.1 billion. China's largest commercial bank was also the first company to debut simultaneously on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

ICBC raised at least US$14 billion in Hong Kong (H-shares) and another US$5.1 billion in Shanghai (A-shares). Due to heavy subscriptions, the greenshoe (i.e. over-allotment) placements were exercised and ICBC's take rose to US$21.9 billion (17% of ICBC's market value before the IPO), divided in US$16 billion in Hong Kong and US$5.9 billion in Shanghai. Following the global offering, the free float of shares was 22.14% of the market capitalization.

At the end of its first day of trading, the bank's shares closed up almost 15% at HK$3.52 in Hong Kong, compared with the listing price of HK$3.07, which was set at the top of the indicative range due to the strong demand. According to Bloomberg, ICBC's market capitalisation at the end of trade based on its Hong Kong shares was US$156.3 billion, making its equity the world's fifth highest among banks, just behind JPMorgan Chase. Meanwhile, ICBC's Shanghai-listed A-shares recorded more modest gains and ended up 5.1% from the offering price of RMB 3.12.

On September 24, 2014, ICBC Kuwait Branch officially opened in Kuwait City, capital of Kuwait. As the first and currently the only Chinese bank in Kuwait, the establishment of ICBC Kuwait Branch ended the history of no Chinese bank’s presence in Kuwait. Meanwhile, it is also the fourth branch of ICBC in the Middle East, following branches in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha. Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdulmohsen Al-Madaj, Chairman of ICBC Jiang Jianqing, and China’s ambassador to Kuwait Cui Jianchun and other officials and guests attended the opening ceremony held in Kuwait City on September 24.

ICBC is not only the first Chinese bank to set up operating branches in the Middle East, but also the biggest Chinese bank in the region in terms of total number of branches and business scale. The establishment of ICBC Kuwait Branch has further optimized the Bank’s service network in the Middle East and represents another important achievement of the Bank’s international operation strategy. ICBC Kuwait Branch has full-suite banking license, offering high-quality financial products and diversified and comprehensive financial services tailored to customers’ needs. Meanwhile, it will continue cooperating with other ICBC institutions in the Middle East to upgrade its comprehensive service capability in Kuwait.

As discussed by ICBC Senior Officials, the bank is open to alternative banking and financing and would like to seek more guidance on best practices.

2014 was an outstanding year for ICBC, ranking 1st in the Top 1000 World Banks, based on tier 1 capital, and also being recognised as The Banker's Global Bank of the Year.