control powers vested in the government, bearing in mind the need to build up adequate capital reserves virtually from scratch. For the government, there was an advantage in widening the TSBs' investment powers only slowly, not least the threat of competition to its own newly created bank, National Girobank. TSBs actively computerised their administration. Two companies were set up in 1972 in preparation for future change: TSB Computer Services Ltd., co-ordinated all computer systems and related developments, and Central Trustee Savings Bank Ltd. dealt with volume transactions. The Trustee Savings Banks Act in 1975 allowed TSBs to offer services equivalent to those of the clearing banks, but it also required that, in the space of one year, the number of independent TSBs was reduced from 73 to 19, under the central co-ordinating authority of the TSB Central Board. The 19 banks were: Aberdeen Savings Bank Birmingham Municipal TSB TSB of the Channel Islands TSB of Eastern England TSB of Lancashire and Cumbria TSB of Leicester and Nottingham TSB of Mid-Lancashire and Merseyside TSB of the Midlands TSB North East TSB of Northern Ireland North Staffordshire TSB TSB North West Central Region TSB South East TSB of South Scotland South West TSB TSB of Tayside and Central Scotland TSB of Wales and Border Counties West of Scotland TSB TSB of Yorkshire and Lincoln This organisational framework for savings banks was in place between 1976 and 1984, a period during which TSB management undertook a series of fundamental changes while pursuing the creation of independent and profitable financial services group. Tom Bryans, general manager of the Northern Ireland Trustee Savings Bank, was the first chief executive of the newly amalgamated trustee savings banks. He was in his mid-50s, and had spent all his working life at the TSB movement, becoming a manager in 1956 and then becoming an expert in computerised banking. Bryans took the helm with a mandate to turn the savings banks from a quasi-government body into successful independent providers, but his salary of £17,000 per annum was well below those paid at similar posts at clearing banks. The amalgamation of individual TSBs into purposely created regional banks and the establishment of a central board in 1975 provided the resources to support the introduction of personal lending in 1977. However, attempts to diversify across retail bank markets failed. Together with the National Giro Bank and the Co-operative Bank, the efforts