the headquarters of clydesdale bank in st vincent place glasgow type public industry finance and insurance founded 1838 headquarters st vincent place glasgow scotland key people james pettigrew chairman david duffy chief executive officer products financial services revenue 17.5 million 2007 operating income 194 million pre annual 2008 net income 139 million pre annual 2008 total assets 35.8 bn mar 2014 2 number of employees c. 4 758 2014 parent cybg plc subsidiaries yorkshire bank website www.cbonline.co.uk clydesdale bank plc scottish gaelic banca dhail chluaidh is a commercial bank in scotland . formed in glasgow in 1838 it is the smallest of the three scottish banks . independent until it was purchased by midland bank in 1920 it formed part of the national australia bank group nab between 1987 and 2016 . clydesdale bank was divested from national australia bank in early 2016 and its holding company cybg plc trades on the london and sydney stock exchanges . cybg plc s other banking business yorkshire bank operates as a trading division of clydesdale bank plc under its banking licence . as with the two other scottish banks the bank of scotland and the royal bank of scotland clydesdale bank retains the right to issue its own banknotes . contents 1 history 1.1 formation 1.2 expansion 1.3 the midland era 1.4 national australia bank group and cybg plc 2 banknotes 2.1 banknote history 2.2 2009 issue 2.3 previous issue 2.4 older issues 2.5 commemorative banknotes 2.6 polymer banknotes 3 commonwealth games 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit formation edit in march 1838 an advertisement appeared for a new joint stock banking company in glasgow the clydesdale banking company . it was to be chiefly a local bank having few branches but correspondents everywhere though it was conceded that a branch in edinburgh would be necessary . the bank duly opened for business in both cities in may 1838 . 1 checkland described the bank as the creation of a group of glasgow businessmen of middling order liberal radicals who were active in the government and charities of the city . 2 the driving figure behind the formation of the bank was james lumsden a stationer by business a councillor police commissioner and later lord provost of glasgow . another member of the founding committee henry brock became the bank s first manager . brock came of a merchant family was an accountant and one of the founders of the glasgow savings bank . despite the declaration in the advertisement in the year after formation the bank opened three glasgow branches as well as its first country branches in campbeltown and falkirk ; a further seven had been opened by 1844 . these were supplemented by the acquisition of the greenock union bank ; formed in 1840 it had four branches in the glasgow hinterland . 1 expansion edit a branch of clydesdale bank in leith following the purchase of the greenock union there was little change in the structure of the bank and there were still only 13 branches in 1857 . in that year clydesdale became the first scottish bank to produce a printed balance sheet and it showed assets of 2.7 m and net profits of 70 000 . the public disclosure of its strength stood it in good stead for only months later the western bank of scotland closed its doors followed the next day by the first closure of the city of glasgow bank . clydesdale gained not only customers but 13 branches from the western . a few months later came the acquisition of the edinburgh and glasgow bank which had been weakened by the same economic disturbances . the edinburgh & leith bank as it was originally had been formed in 1838 for the benefit of the industrious middle classes and it had bought the dumfries based southern bank of scotland in 1842 and the glasgow joint stock bank in 1844 the latter leading to the change of name to edinburgh & glasgow bank . poor lending in the 1845 47 period particularly to australia dogged the bank for the next ten years and it was eventually taken over by the clydesdale for a nil consideration ; clydesdale retained 19 of its 27 offices . five years later in 1863 clydesdale acquired the more successful eastern bank of scotland like clydesdale also founded in 1838 . based in dundee it was two have two separate offices and boards one in dundee the other edinburgh . before opening for business it acquired the dundee commercial bank to serve as its dundee office . difficulties with the two boards working together led to the edinburgh bank being wound up and the eastern became an essentially dundee bank ; its acquisition gave clydesdale its first interests north of the river tay . 1 much of the growth in the bank s network had come from acquisitions and the management remained cautious regarding direct branch expansion . however in 1865 a committee was formed to look at prospects and 16 branches were opened in two years . in 1874 the clydesdale went south of the border and opened three branches in cumberland but this was seen as following existing trade rather than making a specific attempt to enter the english market . indeed clydesdale was one of the last scottish banks to acquire a london office 1877 . in 1878 the city of glasgow bank failed for the second time leading again to an increase in clydesdale s deposits and the acquisition of nine of the glasgow branches . the scale of the collapse led to further debate on desirability of limited liability and following legislation in 1879 allowing fixed uncalled liability on shares clydesdale bank registered as a limited liability company in 1882 . 1 reid described the period 1890 1914 as the tranquil years 1 but that did not preclude steady expansion of the branch network from 92 to 153 . 3 that was to mark the end of clydesdale s independent existence . in 1917 the bank was approached by london city and midland later midland bank and although initially resisted clydesdale bank was sold in 1920 . however it continued to operate independently and was always referred to as an affiliate not a subsidiary . the glasgow banks suffered more than others in the depressed economy of the inter war period and from being the largest lender in scotland in 1920 it fell to fifth place by 1939 . despite this the bank continued to open branches particularly in areas enjoying export growth and the network increased from 158 in 1919 to 205 in 1939 . 3 the midland era edit midland had also acquired the north of scotland bank in 1923 but the aberdeen management had fiercely resisted any attempt to merge with clydesdale . however the changed competitive market after the second world war meant that the two banks could not remain separate and in 1950 they were amalgamated to become the clydesdale and north of scotland bank soon shortened to clydesdale bank . clydesdale had 189 branches and the north of scotland 161 covering 221 towns between them . of the eight scottish banks clydesdale had been the third largest by deposits the north being the smallest . the merged bank became scotland s largest in terms of deposits advances and branches . however by 1969 mergers elsewhere had reduced the number of scottish banks to three with clydesdale now being the smallest . midland needed to rationalise the enlarged clydesdale but faced resistance . midland also needed additional capital and its solution to both challenges was to sell clydesdale along with midland s irish subsidiaries to national australia bank in 1987 . 3 national australia bank group and cybg plc edit in 1989 national australia bank bought the clydesdale bank for 420m . fred goodwin an accountant working for touche ross worked on the acquisition . in 1995 goodwin with little direct banking experience was appointed deputy ceo of the clydesdale until 1997 . during this period goodwin earned the nickname fred the shred for his aggressive manner in dealing with staff . 4 in september 2013 the bank was fined 8.9 m after miscalculating the mortgage repayments of more than 42 000 customers . 5 in march 2015 the house of commons treasury select committee said in a conduct report that they had evidence that the clydesdale bank had mis sold unregulated tailored business loans and that the bank s own internal review of the mis selling had serious shortcomings and lacked transparency . 6 in april 2015 the clydesdale was fined 20.7 m the largest of its type imposed by the financial conduct authority for the mis selling of ppi insurance . 7 8 national australia bank confirmed in october 2014 that it planned to exit the uk and was considering a number of options for yorkshire and clydesdale banks including a possible stock market listing . 9 in october 2015 nab confirmed it would float clydesdale bank and yorkshire bank on the london stock exchange lse in february 2016 through an initial public offering 10 with an aim of raising 2bn . 11 12 the bank s newly formed holding company cybg plc began conditional trading on the lse and the australian securities exchange on 3 february and began trading unconditionally from 8 february . 13 the flotation share price of 180p meant that the national australia bank made an estimated loss of 2bn on the sale and had to make provisions of around 1.7 bn to cover claims for mis selling of products . 14 in march 2016 clydesdale and yorkshire bank announced the closure of 28 branches as a cost saving move . 15 in april 2016 cybg announced the closure of a further 9 scottish branches and 17 yorkshire bank branches . 16 banknotes edit see also banknotes of the pound sterling clydesdale bank notes banknote history edit until prevented by the bank charter act 1844 privately owned banks in great britain and ireland were permitted to issue their own banknotes and money issued by provincial scottish 17 english welsh and irish banking companies circulated freely as a means of payment . 18 while the bank of england eventually gained a monopoly for issuing banknotes in england and wales banks in scotland and northern ireland retained the right to issue their own banknotes and continue to do so to this day . in scotland clydesdale bank along with the royal bank of scotland and bank of scotland still prints its own banknotes . 2009 issue edit the current designs were released in autumn 2009 . 19 the obverse designs feature famous scots while the reverse designs feature scotland s unesco world heritage sites . image value main colour design obverse reverse obverse reverse 3 4 5 blue sir alexander fleming st kilda 5 6 10 brown robert burns edinburgh old and new towns 7 8 20 purple king robert the bruce new lanark 9 10 50 green elsie inglis the antonine wall 11 12 100 pink charles rennie mackintosh neolithic orkney previous issue edit the previous series of clydesdale notes each depicted a notable person from scottish history 20 5 pound note featuring robert burns on the obverse and a vignette of a field mouse from burns poem to a mouse on the reverse 10 pound note featuring mary slessor on the front and a vignette of a map of calabar and african missionary scenes on the back 20 pound note featuring robert the bruce on the front and a vignette of the bruce on horseback with the monymusk reliquary against a background of stirling castle on the back 50 pound note featuring adam smith on the front and a vignette of industry tools against a background of sailing ships on the back 100 pound note featuring lord kelvin on the front and a vignette of the university of glasgow on