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The Bank of England initially raised some concerns at the rapid growth in Midland's foreign currency deposits, which appeared unrelated to its commercial transactions, but decided not to restrict the activity. Maurice Parsons, who later went on to become deputy governor from 1966 to 1970, rationalised that ‘it is impossible to say to a London bank that it may accept dollar deposits but may not seek for them.’ Threadneedle Street'sssss1 sanguine attitude towards Midland's innovation was likely influenced at least in part by the beneficial impact of these dollar inflows on Britain's balance of payments position – in June 1955 alone, the dollar deposits Midland attracted reduced the fall in the country's foreign exchange reserves from $56 million to $6 million.ssss1 As with most financial innovations, other banks quickly copied what Midland was doing.

In the wake of the Suez crisis, sterling was hit with renewed distress, prompting the Chancellor of the Exchequer to impose new foreign exchange controls in the third quarter of 1957. The use of sterling to finance foreign trade between third parties was banned and refinance credits in sterling were outlawed. Prevented from using their sterling deposit bases for international lending, resourceful British banks began to use their dollar deposits.