Jabez Balfour as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886. In 1880 he was appointed chairman of the Northampton Street Tramways. Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Sir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the "Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited" in December 1887. In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building
Hinckley and Rugby Building Society 26 years of service, during which time assets had grown from £2 million to over £100 million. Anthony Payne was appointed his successor as general manager and secretary, becoming chief executive two years later in 1987. Hinckley & Rugby, in common with all other building societies went through very tough times in the early 1990s, as house prices slumped by up to 30% and mortgage interest rates soared to over 15%. Following Anthony Payne’s retirement from the Society in December 1992, Barry Hunt was appointed chief executive, and he led a change of strategy that put sound building blocks in