Joint-stock Banks, joint-stock companies for the purpose of banking. They are regulated, according to the date of their incorporation, by charter, or by 7 Geo. 4, c. 46; 7 & 8 Vict. cc. 32 and 113; 9 & 10 Vict. c. 45 (in Scotland and Ireland); 20 & 21 Vict. cc. 49 & 91; and 27 & 28 Vict. c. 32; or by the Companies Act, 1929, in substitution for previous Acts, which makes registration under it compulsory in the case of a partnership consisting of more than ten persons. It is believed that the liability of the shareholders in chartered banks is in most if not in all cases limited to some amount fixed by the charter, generally twice the amount of their shares. Under the (English) Companies Act, the liability may be either limited or unlimited, and most banks registered under the old Companies Act of 1862 were unlimited until 1880, when many took advantage of the (English) Companies Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 76), to register anew as limited; see now Companies Act, 1929, ss. 321, 322, 359 and 380. The Act of 1879, however, repealing and replacing s. 182 of the Companies Act, 1862, provided for unlimited liability in respect of bank-notes, and the same provision is repeated in the Companies Act, 1929. By s. 360 (ibid.) banks registered under the Act as a limited company are under an unlimited liability in respect of notes issued by them, and their members are liable for the debts of the bank to the extent of the amount paid to note-holders out of the general assets. The sale and purchase of shares in joint-stock banking companies is regulated by the Banking Companies (Shares) Act, 1867(30 & 31 Vict. c. 29), which, in order to prevent speculative transactions, requires that the numbers of the shares shall be distinguished in the contract of sale, which is otherwise to be void; but this enactment, which, although making it a misdemeanour to insert false numbers, imposes no penalty for not inserting the numbers at all, is not regarded (see LEEMAN'S ACT) on the Stock Exchange. Consult Grant or Hart on Banking; Smith's Mercantile Law; Lindley on Company Law; and see BANK; BANKER; BANK-NOTES.
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