Bank hours 'too short’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33777, 25 February 1975, Page 12

Bank hours 'too short’

(X Z. Press Association > HAMILTON. Longer banking hours and moves into fringe financing have been recommended to trustee savings banks by an Auckland merchant banker, Mr J. G. Russell. Mr Russell, managingdirector of Securitibank. Ltd. was speaking to the Trustee Savings Banks’ Association conference in Hamilton. “As family bankers, 1 wonder if you have ever considered the difficulty which! many of your depositors must have in doing business with you?” he asked. “The bank does not open for business until everybody is at work. They are then closed, with the exception of Friday night, when the depositor is going home.! Transport arrangements! would preclude many! depositors from using the; bank service on Frida' night.” Mr Russell suggested an extension of hours to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week. Staff would be less resistant to changes in working hours in a year which was likely to show considerable unemployment, he said. Improvement in trustee bank mortgage service was also needed. It should be possible for trustee banks to refinance existing mortgages, Mr Russell said. “I am not aware of any common policy in this matter, but I know that there are some trustee banks which will not refinance existing mortgages. This is poor service to a depositor who has a privately-arranged

1 mortgage at a high rate of I interest and wishes to refinance it." Also, it was usual for new houses to be favoured to the detriment of loans on older properties, Mr Russell said. “In practice, this has meant that a borrower who ' builds a new house, possibly' a little more expensive than his means will comfortably allow, finds it relatively easy, to get a mortgage of a size' 1 which puts some strain on his income in servicing the repayments. “On the other hand, a 1 person who purchases an old (property, at a much lower!

price, with a mortgage; i liability well within his meansri to service, finds it almost! impossible to obtain a, mortgage from a savings bank. “This is economic nonsense in my .book, and is certainly no assistance to the family man,” said Mr Russell. OTHER SERVICES Trustee savings bankers should also look closely at | the possibility of offering] additional services such as savings bonds, coupon banking schemes, travel booking facilities, trust and will administration, and credit cards.