Birmingham

Birmingham (ⁱ/ˈbɜːrmɪŋəm/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the largest and most populous British city outside London with 1,101,360 residents (2014 est.), and its population increase of 88,400 residents between the 2001 and 2011 censuses was greater than that of any other British local authority. The city lies within the West Midlands Built-up Area, the third most populous built-up area in the United Kingdom with 2,440,986 residents (2011 census), and its metropolitan area is the United Kingdom's second most populous with 3,701,107 residents (2012 est.) and is also the 9th largest metropolitan area in Europe.

Birmingham Midshires

Birmingham Midshires is a trading name of Bank of Scotland plc (part of Lloyds Banking Group). It is headquartered at Pendeford Business Park, Wolverhampton and has 67 offices throughout England. Between 1989 and 2004, it also had an office located in Cardiff in South Wales, but the operations from this office were moved to Pendeford to make way for a Halifax branch, which still operates today. Previously, Birmingham Midshires was a building society, known as the Birmingham Midshires Building Society.

History

The Birmingham Midshires was formed in 1986 by the merger of the Birmingham and Bridgwater and the Midshires Building Societies. These societies could trace their roots back to 1849 and were themselves formed by the mergers of the following societies: Liverpool Building Society, Wolverhampton and Mercia, Bristol Equitable Permanent Benefit, Swansea & Gower Permanent, and the Warrington Workingmens' Permanent.

In 1999, the Birmingham Midshires Building Society agreed to a takeover bid from the Royal Bank of Scotland. However the deal collapsed when Halifax plc tabled a more lucrative offer. Halifax itself became a part of HBOS plc when it merged with the Bank of Scotland in 2001. In 2007, it became a division of Bank of Scotland plc following a reorganisation in the HBOS Group.

Power of attorney

A power of attorney (POA) or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter, sometimes against the wishes of the other. The person authorizing the other to act is the principal, grantor, or donor (of the power). The one authorized to act is the agent or, in some common law jurisdictions, the attorney-in-fact (attorney for short). Formerly, a power referred to an instrument under seal while a letter was an instrument under hand, but today both are signed by the grantor, and therefore there is no difference between the two.

Attorney-in-fact

The term attorney-in-fact is used in several countries in place of the term agent and should be distinguished from the term attorney-at-law.

In the United States, an attorney-at-law is a lawyer — someone licensed to practice law in a particular jurisdiction.

The Uniform Power of Attorney Act employs the term agent. As an agent, an attorney-in-fact is a fiduciary for the principal, so the law requires an attorney-in-fact to be completely honest with and loyal to the principal in their dealings with each other. If the attorney-in-fact is being paid to act for the principal, the contract is usually separate from the power of attorney itself, so if that contract is in writing, it is a separate document, kept private between them, whereas the power of attorney is intended to be shown to various other people.