Report: GloCoBank Annual Workshop (13 Sept 2023)

On 13th September 2023, the project hosted its third annual project workshop (both online and at St Hilda's College) and our research team presented their work-in progress and results so far to members of the project's Academic Advisory Panel and associated researchers and doctoral students. This was the first time that the full project team has been in place and we were delighted to be able to share an update across all of the project's work packages.

The workshop commenced with a presentation by Jamieson Myles, Post-doctoral Researcher European Networks, in which he provided a long-term historical perspective on payments and credit in global correspondent banking, with insights from his archival research in Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt,

This was followed by Post-doctoral Researcher Correspondents and Crisis, Akram Beniamin, who shared his preliminary findings on the impact of the 1931 European financial crisis on the shape of the correspondent banking network, applying social network analysis to data extracted from the Bankers' Almanac for the years between 1925 and 1935.

After lunch we heard from Manuel Bautista-Gonzalez, Post-doctoral Researcher Central/South America, who presented insights from his archival research on correspondent banking in Mexico from the first economic globalisation through the early Bretton Woods era, using case studies on Banco Nacional de México (Banamex), Banco de México (Banxico) and Banco de Comercio (Bancomer).

Nora Yitong Qiu, Post-doctoral Researcher East Asia, then presented research based on archival work she has carried out in China on the fall of Qing and the rise of international banking in China 1870-1912, in particular the government's failed attempt to create a central bank and the role of HSBC's global correspondent network.

In our final session we heard from Alena Pivavarava, Post-doctoral Researcher Data Analysis, about her organisational demography project which tracks and visualises the distribution and evolution of organisational changes (creations/name changes/mergers/failures) in the British and global banking industry over 300 years, using data extracted from the Bankers' Almanac.

Finally, Catherine Schenk, Principal Investigator, gave a presentation on the changing architecture of the cross-border payments system between 1969 and 1999 and the role and impact of public and private sector technologies, interventions and regulation in correspondent banking.

The combined experience of the group, their inputs and the discussion that ensued were extremely helpful to the project research team in enriching and informing our ongoing research direction. Thank you to everyone that participated.

Clockwise from top left: Jamieson Myles; Akram Beniamin; Nora Yitong Qiu; workshop group (l-r, Simon Mollan, Nora Qiu, Manuel Bautista-Gonzalez, Catherine Schenk; John Singleton; Jamieson Myles; Sabine Schneider; Akram Beniamin; Alena Pivavarava); Catherine Schenk; Alena Pivavarava.

Programme

11.00am:            Welcome - Catherine Schenk, Principal Investigator, GloCoBank Project

11.15am:            Jamieson Myles, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

Elastic infrastructure: a historical perspective on payments and credit in global correspondent banking

Akram Beniamin, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

The impact of the 1931 European financial crisis on the shape of correspondent banking networks: preliminary findings

1.45pm:              Manuel Bautista-Gonzalez, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

Correspondent banking networks in Mexico from the first economic globalization through the early Bretton Woods era: three case studies (1895-1956)

Nora Yitong Qiu, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

The fall of Qing and the rise of East Asia’s global payment system 1870–1912

3.45pm:              Alena Pivavarava, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

Reconstructing the organisational histography: 300 years of venturing and consolidation in the British and global banking industry

Catherine Schenk, University of Oxford/GloCoBank project

Moving money – redesigning the architecture of global payments 1969–99

5.15-5.30pm:     General discussion/wrap-up

Participants