THE SAVINGS BANK.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 103, 3 May 1922, Page 4

THE SAVINGS BANK.

Some of the figures in the annual accounts of the Auckland Savings Bank may reflect the depression through which the community line been passing. The amount of money on deposit at the end of the 3'ear shows a slight decrease, against an increase of more than £100,000 shown at the end of the previous year. The increase in the number of depoeitors was 2309, agninst 4301 in 1920-21. The Bank, however, has had another very good year, and the balancesheet supplies fresh proof of the firmness of its foundations, the soundness of its management, and its usefulness to the community. It was responsible for nearly three millions of the people's money in deposits, against which it hud mortgages amounting to more than a million, and Government stock totalling nearly a million, which with other assets made up a total of £3,100,000. The Bank ie eminently a hank of the small depositor. Of Iho 75,629 depositors in tlie Bank (exclusive of the Penny Branch) nearly •2.">,000 are in the category of " £20 and r.nder," 9037 liavo between £20 and CoO. and 801)7 between CSO and £100. Thirteen thousand depositors benefit by tho extension of the interest limit from £100 to £200. The average amount at credit of depoeitors, excluding inoperative accounts, i« ju»t under £31. The inclusion of these inoperative accounts in the tables is to some extent misleading. There are no fewer than 18.880 accounts under £1 which have not been operated on for two years or more, and the average per account is only 4/3, so that they bulk more largely in the figures than their importance warrants.