Westminster Bank Westminster Bank Westminster Bank was a British retail bank which operated in England and Wales from 1834 until its merger into the National Westminster Bank in 1970; it continued to exist as a dormant registered non-trading company until 4 July 2017 when it was dissolved Considered one of the Big Five, it expanded during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and took over a number of smaller banking companies. In 1834, the London and Westminster Bank was the first firm founded under the auspices of the Bank Charter Act 1833, which allowed joint-stock banks to be established in the capital. For
Proprietary trading bodies worldwide require that the proprietary trading desk is kept separate from its client-related activity and trading. This is achieved by the use of information barriers (also known as "Chinese walls"), which prevent conflict of interest which might, for example, allow a Bank to front-run its own customers. There often exists confusion between proprietary positions held by market-making desks (sometimes referred to as warehoused risk) and desks specifically assigned the task of proprietary trading. Because of recent financial regulations like the Volcker Rule in particular, most major banks have spun off their prop trading desks or shut them down altogether.