The facility in the Regulations for "nominating" an account was in fact common to many other organisations, eg. insurance companies, building societies, savings banks, etc. and gave an opportunity for a Bank depositor to ensure that a person or persons named in the Nomination could receive an aggregate sum of £500 or less from the Bank account(s) upon the death of the nominator, i.e. the depositor. (Prior to the 1970 Regulations, the permitted sum had been "any amount".) In effect, the Nomination was very much like a Will except that it applied only to the account, and indeed was unaffected by any Will or other arrangement that the depositor may have already made or might make in the future. Any depositor of sixteen years of age or over could make such a Nomination.

 

A special form of Nomination was supplied by the Bank and had to be signed by the depositor, and duly witnessed, whereupon it was deposited with the branch at which the account was held, given a sequential number in a special Register of Nominations, and returned to the depositor for safe keeping. As with a Will, it was the responsibility of the depositor to notify someone such as a friend or the nominee(s) that the document existed, so that it could be produced subsequent to the depositor's death. Importantly, it would supersede any Will that had been made. If however, the nominee(s) died during the lifetime of the depositor, the Nomination was revoked by their death and any affected Bank account was dealt with as with any other deceased depositor. If only one of several nominees died, the Regulations contained provisions as to how the remaining nominees would be affected.

 

As with a Will, marriage of the nominator subsequent to making the Nomination automatically revoked the Nomination, although an "indemnity" Regulation also protected the Bank if upon death the nominated amount was actually paid to the nominee, but at the time of payment the Bank was unaware of the disqualifying marriage.

 

Again, as is the case with witnesses to a Will, the witness to the signature of a nominator was not permitted to be also the nominee.

 

If a subsequent Nomination was made by the depositor, the prior Nomination was automatically revoked; otherwise the Nomination normally required a written, witnessed notification of revocation to be presented at the Bank within the depositor's lifetime.

 

Finally, any creditor of a deceased nominator whose other assets were insufficient to meet the indebtedness could make application to the Bank for any nominated sum which might wholly or partly expunge the debt. Otherwise, the Regulations having been duly observed, they included the usual clause: "The receipt of the nominee shall be a good discharge to the Corporation for the sum so paid"

 

In practice, the ledger records were stamped with the word "Nomination" and the serial number was written alongside, and periodically compared with the Register of Nominations to check that all were still in force, this also being an item for an inspector to verify on his visits. Nominations caused few problems as depositors rarely used the facility. Restricted as they were to just one Nomination in force at any one time, they seldom fulfilled a depositor's requirements and became less and less popular, especially among younger people, so that a branch may have been hard pushed to find the appropriate rubber stamp........... and I wonder what would have been the position (which in my experience never arose!) if upon death of the nominator, a signed revocation was submitted, clearly showing it to have been signed, witnessed and dated before death? Once again, I am sure we would have relied upon the exact wording of the Regulations and declined the document. "Received by the Bank during the lifetime" it said and that put the matter beyond doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The original (1919) regulations relating to Nominations are reproduced in this website. The relevant sections are
 in the following General Rules:
    41: A Depositor may Nominate
    42: Requirement for Nomination
    43: Registration
    44: Revocation
    45: Scope of Nomination
    46: Division of Sums Nominated
    47: Witness to Nomination Disqualified from taking under it
    48: Operation of Nomination
    49: Payment of Debts out of Nominated Funds
    50: Payment for the Benefit of a Nominee under sixteen
    51: Nominations in favour of Issue not to lapse
    52: Nomination revoked by marriage