Which British bank failed in 1866 during the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1866?

Overend, Gurney and Company failed in 1866 during the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1866.

Overend, Gurney was a major London discount house, an institution that financed trade by buying bills of exchange. It had expanded into riskier lending, including railway ventures, and suffered heavy losses after the collapse of the financier and railway promoter company Agra and Masterman’s Bank.

When Overend, Gurney suspended payments on May 10, 1866, panic spread through London’s financial system. Depositors rushed to withdraw money, credit tightened, and several banks and businesses failed. The Bank of England responded by seeking a government-authorized suspension of the Bank Charter Act’s note issue limits, allowing it to act more forcefully as lender of last resort.

The episode helped establish the importance of central-bank support during banking panics. It is sometimes called the Black Friday panic, but that label can refer to other financial crises, so the bank’s name is the precise answer here.