£7 MILLION DEPOSITED

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30666, 4 February 1965, Page 12

£7 MILLION DEPOSITED

Canty. Savings Bank At the close of business on Monday depositors’ funds in the Canterbury Savings Bank exceeded £7 million, the president of the bank (Mr M. J. Russell) said yesterday. This amount is to the credit of nearly 26,000 depositors. Mr Russell said the trustees were delighted with the achievement, which came within one day of two years and a half since the bank began. “It seems such a very short while ago,” said Mr Russell, “that the bank was a very small cog in the trustee savings bank machine. The bank opened on August 1, 1962, and the first £1 million in depositors’ funds was achieved three months and eight days from that date.

“The second million took a little longer, and since then the millions have come along in a most surprising and gratifying way. Now, with new banks in many other centres in New Zealand, the Canterbury Savings Bank is the sixth largest in a field of 13. “A vigorous policy of promotion and expansion has been carried out by the board of trustees, and now the bank has seven offices in Christchurch, a Marlborough division with its office at Blenheim, and a Nelson division with its office at Nelson.” These branches, Mr Russell said, would be of increasing value to the people of Canterbury who travelled extensively to the Sounds and beyond for their holidays. The bank’s thrift clubs had shown outstanding progress, and in the two years since this facility was offered, 4500 depositors had saved £385,000 in 232 thrift clubs. The mortgages department had now been in service for almost 18 months and nearly £2 million had been advanced or promised in the Canterbury area. In addition, the bank had more than £250,000 invested in local authority stock.

“The trustees hope that the bank will soon be permitted to offer home lay-by, schools’ banks, and full budget accounts for the convenience of depositors, and the bank is now approaching the Minister of Finance for the authority to extend into these fields,” Mr Russell said.