In May 1856, Akroyd circulated a pamphlet to prominent figures in the county, leading to a public meeting in November at the Philosophical Hall, Leeds.

At the bottom of the savings chain stood the penny banks, doing what their name implied: accepting very small sums from the poorest local people.

What Akroyd envisaged was the Yorkshire forming and owning the local penny banks, and also being the receiving agent for their surplus funds.

He began a campaign "to form a great network of penny banks and provident societies in the West Riding, guaranteed by the local gentry and industrialists".

He wanted freedom of investment of the funds, and recognised that they could not grow just from the savings of the poor: the Bank needed small traders also.

Finally, in May 1859 the Central Office was ready and the Bank registered under the Friendly Society Acts.

By the end of 1860 the abortive Provident Society had been abandoned and it was decided to extend the Bank coverage from the West Riding to the whole county.

Registration was not acceptable to the trustees, who did not want the restrictions it brought: e.g. on the maximum amount an individual investor could deposit (on the face of it, a strange objection from a penny bank).

He introduced a stocks and shares department to the Bank and, as a result of the Boer War, developed a network of international correspondents.

Although these deposits were repayable on demand, the funds were largely invested in fixed rate government securities, which, although liquid, fluctuated in value.

The operational limits of 10 miles over the border[clarification needed] were removed and, in another change, overdrafts were allowed.

Helped by inflation, the Bank's deposits rose to £95 million in 1948, the year that Henry Ashworth became general manager.

[6] In April 2012, National Australia Bank completed a strategic review of its businesses in the United Kingdom and decided to scale back operations, completely stopping Commercial Property Investment lending and closing 29 Financial Solutions Centres, with the resultant loss of 1,400 jobs over three years.

[7] In July 2013, Yorkshire Bank forgot to renew its domain name, leading to customers being unable to log onto its website for a number of days.

[8] On 2 September 2014 the bank suffered more IT related issues as its systems left customers unable to make or receive payments for a period of time.

[13] In June 2018 CYBG plc announced it would acquire Virgin Money for £1.7 billion in an all-stock deal.

Almost one in six employees were expected to lose their jobs in the takeover, which would result in retail customers being migrated to the Virgin Money brand over three years.

[14] In June 2019 CYBG plc announced its plans to consolidate its businesses under the Virgin Money brand.