BANKS DO NOT INTEND TAKING FRESH ACTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1948, Page 5

BANKS DO NOT INTEND TAKING FRESH ACTION

(Rec. 11.10 a.m.) SYDNEY. This Day.

Though the chief executive officers of the two largest Australian trading banks have denied that any action to challenge sections 18 to 22 of the Banking Act, 1945, is contemplated, well-informed Labour quarters in Canberra maintain that the Government fears an attack on the Act.

The sections concerned provide that the trading banks must keep special deposits with the Commonwealth Bank and have been responsible for nearly £300,000,000 being paid into special accounts by the private banks. The view in Canberra is that the banks reluctantly accepted the 1945 Act as a lesser evil than nationalisation. When the Melbourne City Council successfully challenged another section of the Act requiring municipal and State authorities to bank exclusively with the Commonwealth Bank, the full nationalisation scheme as outlined in the Banking Act, 1947, was precipitated. Labour men ieel that with the threat of nationalisation removed and the 1945 Act proved open to challenge, the States or private banks may move again. Denials that such action is contemplated were made by Mr S. J. Gandcn. acting general manager of the Bank of New South Wales, and Mr A. S. Osborne, general manager of the Commercial Banking Company, Sydney. Canberra correspondents report that the Cabinet will not meet specially to discuss the judgment, but that most Labour members of Parliament are in favour* of an appeal to the Privy Council.