History

The Scottish Stockbrokers’ Benevolent Fund’s history dates back many, many years. It is the successor of Benevolent Funds around Scotland, from the days when there were five separate exchanges: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen (formed in the 1840s) and Dundee (1879) and the Greenock Exchange (1888). Excepting Greenock’s, the separate cities’ exchanges were merged in 1964, following the Jenkins Committee report, and then in 1971, they rationalised to one trading floor in the Exchange building in Glasgow (photos of the exterior of which are shown on this website). At the time this was St George’s Square, but that was renamed in 1986, Nelson Mandela Place.

Technology was relentless, and with quicker communications, and economies of scale, it was not long before the Scottish Stock Exchange closed, trading being absorbed into the London Stock Exchange (1973).

When the various exchanges started, you needed to become a member of the exchange in order to trade, but this structure eventually gave way to proprietors, members and clerks. The abolition of fixed commissions, the move to dual capacity, and the advent of computer trading led to the de-regulation of the industry and Big Bang in 1986.

In 1973 the Glasgow Stockbrokers Benevolent Fund, merged with the Edinburgh Stockbrokers
Benevolent Fund, and the Glasgow Clerks Benevolent Fund merged with the Edinburgh Clerks Fund. In 1994, the two resulting funds merged too, always with a mission to support present and past members and their families who fell upon hard times, or struggled with their health. Today, membership can be extended to anyone who is or has been employed in Scotland in businesses that have membership of the London Stock Exchange, at the discretion of the Trustees.