BANKING RETURNS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 86, 11 April 1912, Page 2

BANKING RETURNS.

LARGE INCREASE IN ADVANCES. The statutory returns for the five banks doing business in New Zealand for the quarter ended 31st March, two to hand. When all aro taken together they 6how a very substantial increase in advances and discounts combined when the returns for quarter under review are compared with those- of March, 1911. The advances and discounts have been shared by all the banks. It is evident that the banks liave still a considerable amount of money to lend, although the fixed deposit* in the caso of some of them show a shrinkage when tho March quarter of 1912 is compaa-ed with that of Taking the assets and liabilities for the past quarter, the figures of each institution will be found as under: —

Jixcess liabilities, £768,216. The liabilities of the Bank of New Zealand exceed the assets by £1,508.162, but tho returns for this bank aro those lor its New Zealand business only, and do not include that of the London, Australian, and Fiji branches. Tho aggrogate a&sete and liabilities for the March quarter of the past two years compare as follows:—-

Turning to the deposits, the aggregates show a decrease of 345.741, which is, accounted for by the reduction of the Government deposits and a slight falling off m the fixed deposits. The free deposits have expanded by some £670,000, an increase in which all the banks participated : —

The transactions of each bank may; be seen in th© table hereimder : —

12,974,315 13,644,148 669,833 FIXED DEPOSITS.

j-iiurou&e. + Decrease. t , ■ . ■ . As will be seen, there was an aggregate falling off of fixed deposits when the quarter is compared with that of March, 1911, of nearly £123,000, in which all tho banks but the Bank of New Zealand had part. ■ Talcing free and fixed deposits forth© March quarter of the past five years, it will be seen that 1 the quarter just concluded compaa-es most' favourably with those o£ previous similar periods, the, totals for which were as follow: —

The advances, as the appended table I will show, have increased for the quarter by £3,274,000, which is nearly £200,000 more than the advances of 1908, the year in which the deposits iwere, however, considerably below th« advances. Tho position is set out as under : —

The discounts, which largely reflect the mercantile position, are shown in tho following comparative table: —

The movements of advances and discount* combined over a period of five years are to be witnessed in the following table: —

The movemehts of the deposits (fixed and free) and tho advances and discount show that the former have increased for this March quarter over that of 1911 by £546,856 while ithe advances have increased by £3,229,160 whereas last year the deposits increased over the March quarter of 1910 by £1,314,284. the advances for March. '1911, w«re £1,806,945 over those for the 1910, March quarter. The noto circula-tion conitiuuec to show substantial expansion indicating' that there is still a desire to circulate money from hand to hand freely. The total of the notes hi circulation was £1,708.8139 againfct which mettalic reserves new held to the value of £5,323,014.

Murch. Quarter. 1908 1909 ... 1910 ... •1911 1912 Discounts. Advances. Total. £ £ £ 2,095,795 18,542,310 20,638,105 2,132,562 18,186,909 20,319,471 1,815,317 16,178,128 17,993,445 1,790,807 18,009,584 19,710,391 1,845,495 21,284,053 23,139,548

DI Bank. New Zealand Union N.S: Waleo Australasia National ISCOI UNTS. March, 1911. £ 888,135 193,183 186,087 245,740 278,652 March. 1912. £ 951,333 217,628 148,034 236,794 291,706 1,790,807 1,845,495

Bank. Mar., 'll. Mar., '12. Inc. £ £ £ LZ. I .... 6,764,506 8,214,724 1,450,21' Won ... 3,163,694 3,692,203 528,50! f.S. Wales 2,625,422 3,081,939 1,456,51' .usfcralasia 2,707,787 3,177,871 470,08* rational ... 2,748,174 3,117,317 369,14; 18,009,584 21,284,054 3,274,471

VI arch Juajrtor. .908 ... .909 . . .910 ... 1911 ... L 912 ■ ... Free. Fixed. Deposits. Deposite. Total. £ & £ 11,534,879 9,553,694 21,088,573 11,100,938 9,983,942 20,084,880 11,585,410 10,570,352 22,165,762 12,974,315 10,495,731 23,470,046 13,644,146 30,372,756 24,016,902

Bank. Jniou X T .S. Wales Australasia National ... MovoMar.,'ll. Mat'. ,'l2. meat. £, £ £ 5,117,053 5,218,462 *101,409 1,426,554 1,349,304 1514,333 1,698,576 1,695,806 +2,570 687,451 564,241 +123,210 1,566,298 1,544,943 +21,355 * Increase. 10,495,732 10,372,756 +122,976

Bank. Mar., '11. Mar., '12. Inc. :P «P -P S T ew Zealand 6,lOl"|oO5 6,415,752 314,747 Jnion ... 1,800,379 1,940,887 140,508 S T .S. Wales.., 1,638,585 1,655,057 16,472 \ustrahsia 1,478,022 1,491,670 13.648 National . . 1,956,324 2,140,782 184,458

3ovt. deposits Free deposjte Fixed deposits M Harch, '11. March, '12. £ £ 3,165,614 2,273,018 12,974,315 13,644,14 a 10,495,732 10,372,756 26,635,661 26,289,922

Iseets Liabilities llaroh, '11. Maroh, '12. £ £ ... 27,809,189 27,427,452 :.. 28,478,849 28,195,668 ixcoss of liabilities - 669,660 768,216

Bank. Few Zealand hnon f.S. VVulpb... .UKtralosin fational Liabilities. • Assete. '£ £ 14,946,640 13,438,478 3,465,029 4,838,471 3,575,407 4,405,726 '2,222,008 4,224,023 3,988,584 4,520,754 28,195,668 27,427,45: