Trades Council Opposition

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30419, 18 April 1964, Page 14

Trades Council Opposition

Trading banks should not be allowed to enter the savings bank field, the. Canterbury district council of the Federation of Labour believes.

Alarm had been expressed by the council’s meeting at the statement of the Minister of Finance (Mr Lake) that the Government had agreed in principle to giving the banks the right to open savings branches, a statement from the council said yesterday. It was agreed to refer the matter to the national executive of the federation to take action on a national basis.

The majority of the trading banks were owned by overseas shareholders and the bulk of the profits from savings bank business would go overseas, the council said. If trading banks were allowed into the savings field, there must be an adverse effect on the Post Office Savings Bank and trustee savings banks which played a large part in the economy, both nationally and locally. Their profits also remained in New Zealand.

Some delegates to the council meeting said the decision was another instance of allowing overseas capital to take over in fields which were already well covered by New Zealand-owned and operated institutions. There would be no increase in over-all savings, the council considered, but the money which the Post Office Savings Bank now had for investment in such things as State Advances Corporation housing loans, and the trustee savings banks had available for local body finance, would be diverted to other fields. “The council was of the opinion that the trading banks are already gaining huge profits in their present field,” the statement said.