As against the money of the customer’s in the banker’s hands the relationship between banker and customer is that of principal and agent.
Lord Atkinson said: ‘It is well established that the normal relation between a banker and his customer is that of debtor and creditor, but it is equally well established that quoad the drawing and payment of the customer’s cheques as against money of the customer’s in the banker’s hands the relation is that of principal and agent. The cheque is an order of the principal’s addressed to the agent to pay out of the principal’s money in the agent’s hands the amount of the cheque to the payee thereof.’
Lord Atkinson
(1926) 43 TLR 124
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Barclays Bank plc v Quincecare Ltd QBD 1992
The relationship of banker and customer is that of agent and principal: ‘Primarily, the relationship between a banker and customer is that of debtor and creditor. But quoad the drawing and payment of the customer’s cheques as against the money of . .
Cited – National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited and others HL 30-Jun-2005
Former HL decision in Siebe Gorman overruled
The company had become insolvent. The bank had a debenture and claimed that its charge over the book debts had become a fixed charge. The preferential creditors said that the charge was a floating charge and that they took priority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National Plc and seven Others ComC 24-Apr-2008
The Office sought a declaration that the respondent and other banks were subject to the provisions of the Regulations in their imposition of bank charges to customer accounts, and in particular as to the imposition of penalties or charges for the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Banking
Leading Case
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.194778