Accepting house

An accepting house is a primarily British institution which specializes in the acceptance and guarantee of bills of exchange thereby facilitating the lending of money. They now have taken on other functions as the use of bills has declined, returning to their original wider function of merchant banking. The 'Accepting Houses' in the City of London have representation in Westminster by the Accepting Houses Committee which ensures policy coordination between them, the treasury and the Bank of England. Members of the committee have access to discounted price of bills bought by the Bank of England, although this right has now been extended to other banks in the UK and abroad. The term accepting house is now more of an indication of status rather than function. Examples of UK Accepting Houses are Hambros, Hill Samuel, Morgan Grenfell, Rothschild, J. Henry Schroder Wagg, and S.G. Warburg.