National Giro : modern money transfer / Glyn Davies

Includes index.

1. Giro in Historical Perspective -- 2. The silent Demand -- 3. TUC versus PMG -- 4. The Tide of Success -- 5. Giro 1965-70: Great expectations and hard times -- 6. Giro at Work: Customer Case Studies -- 7. Regionalism, the Review and the New strategy -- 8. Giro A Broad: Growth, destiny and Profitability -- 9. The Future of Giro money on tap.

There are a number of reasons why I thought a book on National Giro might be necessary. First in importance was the fact that whereas books on money and banking abound, the one single book on this topic had been published in 1964 before National Giro was founded. A book written a decade later would be able to compare promise with performance in the context of a rapidly changing technology and of a financial environment which has similarly shown revolutionary changes in the recent past. Second, although there was a paucity of books on the subject, National Giro was nevertheless frequently at the center of storms of controversy in Parliament and Press. The subject of Giro seems to be particularly prone to give rise to extreme comments: it has suffered equally from the excessive hopes of protagonists and the exaggerated fears of competitors. In most of these exchanges it was the short-term political aspects which were mainly emphasized, while longer-term economic and social factors were perhaps too often relegated to the background or completely ignored. Third, the campaign for a British Giro has roots that go far deeper than are revealed by a superficial examination, while the institution is also part of a concept that has world wide ramifications, which in view of the increasing integration of European economies, is becoming of growing importance. It therefore seemed to me a useful, indeed a necessary exercise, to try to put the story of the origins and operations of National Giro into its historical and geographical perspective. Although perspectives can vary according to the standpoint of the viewer, I have attempted to give full factual evidence for justifying my position.