Bank of England linked to historic slave trade, research shows

A new study by historians compiling the Register of British Slave Traders has revealed that the Bank of England and the broader British financial system were deeply entwined with the transatlantic slave trade for centuries. The research indicates that dozens of the bank’s original directors and founding subscribers held substantial investments in enterprises that trafficked enslaved Africans, expanding the known scope of financial involvement in slavery beyond earlier estimates.

The findings place the Bank of England—nationalised in 1946 under Clement Attlee’s Labour government—within a network of financiers who profited from the forced migration of millions of African people. By documenting the extent of these historic connections, the study adds to ongoing efforts to reassess Britain’s economic legacy of slavery and informs contemporary discussions about institutional accountability.