THE BANKS IN THE DEPRESSION

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 286, 30 August 1935, Page 6

THE BANKS IN THE DEPRESSION

To judge from statements .made to-day by the Minister of Finance and a spokesman for the.trading banks it would appear that the two have been a lijtle at cross purposes. In acknowledging the part played by the trading banks during the depression Mr. Coates in his northern speeches emphasised the point that others, and especially the people themselves through their personal sacrifices, had also played their part. At the same time it must be admitted, and due acknowledgment made, that had it! not been for the conservative policy pursued by the banks before the depression they would not have had at .hind the means for assisting their clients to weather the economic . blizzard. No one who has had business relations; with the banks can deny that in the phrase used- by their spokesman to-day they acted as a cushion whereby the severity of the shock was appreciably lessened. Much of the criticism of the banks’policy comes either from people who have had no business dealings with them, or from others who, having been adjudged not “creditworthy.” have vented their spleen in unfair attacks. As Sir James Grose pointed out recently, the actual losses incurred by the banks in carrying the business community over the acute stage of the depression furnish ample evidence of the lengths they have gone in extending credit to their clients. They have taken as much risk as the average man .who conducts his business on sound principles would have incurred.