BANKING RETURNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1934, Page 4

BANKING RETURNS.

SOME RECENT CHANGES. IMPROVEMENT IN ADVANCES. Bank advances at £42,479,000 last month touched the highest point recoided this year, the amount having increased steadily since September. This movement is normal, for funds arc required to finance the gathering and marketing of the season's produce, and this yea? there must be added the necessity for financing a heavier volume of imports. Merchandise imported lust month was nearly £500,000 above the, total tor the corresponding period of last year, and this will have been reflected, to some extent, in the additional accommodation obtained from the banks. The ratio of advances to deposits stood at 69.26 last month, and that, also, »as the highest point reached this year, but it shows that the banks have ample funds available, and, with the sale of Treasury bills stopped, their difficulty is to find suitable avenues for the employment of the money held. The fall of about £1,000,000 in deposits last month is said to be due to seasonal movements, but the continued fall of fixed deposits, which have dropped by '£2,200,000 since July, is- difficult to understand. There have been no loan issues tliat might have absorbed some of this money, and the figures relating to mortgages do not disclose any marked activity in that direction. Doubtless, with fixed deposit rates now so low, depositors are looking carefully for other means of investment, and probably there have -been transfers, substantial in the aggregate, to the Post Office Savings BankThe annual figures should prove interesting, for the marked decline in the deposits of the trading banks with the Central Bank is difficult to understand. Since October they have fallen by nearly £3,000,000, while in the same time the note issue has increased by barely £500,000. The average weekly bank debits to customers' accounts last month was nearly £1,000,000 above the average for November, 1933, and that clearly indicates more active domestic trading.