HIS DEBT IS NEVER LESS THAN FIVE MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 29

HIS DEBT IS NEVER LESS THAN FIVE MILLIONS

A bank chairman has. been confessing here that he "never owed less than £5,000,000," says the "Christian Science Monitor."* . .._;..... This, chairman was Mr. Rupert E. Beckett, head of the, Westminster Bank, one of. Britain's "big five", banks. He was speaking in London at the. annual meeting of the important institution over which he presides, an institution which, like the Midland Bank, which is also,one,;.pf the, "big five," has, been celebrating the.fact that 100 years have gone, by since it.started in business. ." ' ' ■■■■•■/■-'■ ■; : '' '■ "' •■- ---, Describing HbW banking in Britain has grownjfrom small beginnings to its present splendid proportions, Mr. Beckett "referred to days long ' ago when"bankers were 'mere- village farmers wilh: little outlook'" 'beyond their land. Referring to the dimensions of present banking business Mr. Beckett remarked:—- ■ -\- . "It is:ari;;occasibh'uponMriich I may perhaps; be allowed to indulge', in reminiscence. ■■■•■ I myself have seen forty-

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five years of banking, .during v which the gradual evolution ;*pf our. banking system has been ah. experience of absorbing interest. I;.first", joined upVas a banker with a small.private, banking nrm' .whose: liabilities t6; the public were, no moreHthanJ £,5,000,000 though we, may;; be said -to have: been' mellowed by time eyen then,, for iwe had beejn going*'as': a- faitiilyi-'cbncerrT for.- ,140 years;:--:':;~ — '--■—^■-—^■^ ■- - .■.•-.•■'.•;•.; ''To: me: persphaliyi^ii; is curious ."thit one of bur. favourite.' aphorisms .should be^directed •to;>the^ihiqttity^ofV<swin^ mdhey, becausev^eve^^sinceSi;: came rtb man's estate I h'ave-'hever owed less than £5,000,000,.and now owe,, or rather am responsible for, no less than £322,000,000 of other people's money." The latter sum is the amount now on deposit in the Westminster Bank, a sum, therefore, which Mr. Beckett, as .chairman, has Jtd. be, ready at any time, to .repay; a-; thing- which'all Britain's "big five" banks have always been able to.-.do .with promptitude.