Records of the Finance Department

Records of the Finance Department relating to the provision of financial services for the Crown Agents' customers.

Records of the Finance Department, including papers relating to the Joint Colonial and Miscellaneous Funds, are in CAOG 1, CAOG 9 and CAOG 23. CAOG 23 also contains the records of the Finance Directorate.

• Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, Finance Department, 1954-1971
• Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, Financial Services Department, 1971-1997
• Crown Agents for the Colonies, Finance Department, 1918-1954

Topics

Banking

The position of Chief Cashier was created in 1892. The Finance Department was created in 1918, absorbing the Cashier's post as part of the introduction of a formal departmental structure. It provided financial services for the Crown Agents' customers. A major duty was the administration of loans. In 1929, the Joint Colonial Fund was established, in which the principals' cash balances with the Agents were pooled and handled by the Finance Department along effective banking lines, rather than in the piece-meal fashion that had previously been the case. In 1971 the Finance Department became the Financial Services Department.