The BMB's Annual Report for 1965 contained the following statement in the section that listed the Bank's 'Facilities and Services':

 

 

The report section of the same document also referred to the introduction of this new service:

 

 

The mid-1960s was the period when foreign package holidays were rapidly increasing. Their popularity was also contributing to the country's Balance of Payments deficit, and in 1966 an initial limit of £50 per person was imposed by the Government's Exchange Control Regulations (see illustration below), on the amount of foreign currency that could be purchased, either as part of the holiday package, or in actual cash. (The Exchange Control Act 1947 was removed from the statute book on October 24th 1979).

The arrangement that the Bank made with Thos. Cook was for their travel shop in New Street, Birmingham to supply their own-branded Travellers' Cheques, plus foreign currency. Depositors completed a multi-part form stating their requirements, and their branch forwarded this order to Head Office.

The orders were handled by the staff of Head Office branch (ie Banking Hall staff) who were responsible for physically transporting them to the Thos. Cook office. Here, the orders were made up from the stocks held by Thos. Cook, and then collected by Banking Hall staff. After checking, the orders were then forwarded to the relevant branch for collection by the customer. Commissions charged on the orders were split equally between Thos. Cook and the Bank.

Payment for individual orders was made by the branch debiting the depositor's account and crediting a Head Office Suspense Account. Head Office were responsible for reconciling the suspense account, and settling the amount due to Thos. Cook.

Statistics relating to the sale of Travellers' Cheques and

Foreign Currency were reported annually between 1966 and 1977:

	Amount £	Number
1966	113,105	2,120
1967	159,939	2,291
1968	163,179	3,596
1969	151,062	3,514
1970	184,853	4,036
1971	269,466	4,614
1972	343,831	5,849
1973	446,812	7,224
1974	529,339	7,139
1975	482,105	5,430
1976	675,859	6,455
1976 *	568,965	4,626
1980	732,635	5,482
	4,821,150	62,376

 

* April 1st to November 20th