HOUSE PURCHASE DEPARTMENT

The Rules of the BMB, consequent upon the Bank being set up under the Birmingham Corporation Act of 1919, listed three objectives for the Bank: (a) To receive deposits and to guarantee the payment of interest on and the repayment of such deposits. (b) To advance money to any depositors desiring to purchase or acquire a dwelling house or dwelling houses in the City of Birmingham, or any interest therein. (c)To utilise and invest the funds of the Bank in accordance with the Act and the regulations made thereunder, or such other regulations as may be made as therein provided. These Rules, in relation to objectives (a) and (b), referred to the 'Savings Bank Department' and the 'Housing Department'. The 1919 Rules were subsequent to the Bank's 'Savings and Housing Bank Regulations' (approved by the Treasury: August 25th 1919). These regulations were subsequently surplanted by The Birmingham Municipal Bank Regulations of 1925 which formulated the rules regarding each of these two departments in two separate sections, which were now called: the Depositors' Department; and the House Purchase Department. The history of the House Purchase Department*, its methods of operation, and other related subjects are covered in the following sections of this website: The History of the House Purchase Department House Purchase Statistics Mortgage Interest Rates Interest Calculations The House Purchase Department in 1927 Mortgage Lending - 1950 The House Purchase Department in 1969 Miscellaneous Reports to the City Council Other Mortgage Schemes A Speculative Builder's Opinion on the Housing Problem Mortgage Lending as a TSB Memories of working in House Purchase Department in the 1960s The Trials of a Mortgage Applicant Passbooks (House Purchase Department) Valuers Advances to Land Settlers *NOTE: The department was initially named 'House Purchase', and then 'Mortgage Department', and finally 'Advances Department'