BANKING SYSTEM

Southland Times, Issue 22043, 16 June 1933, Page 8

BANKING SYSTEM

PUBLIC ATTITUDE EVIDENCE OF ILL-FEEL-ING SERVICES DEFENDED (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, June 15. The opinion that the banks should take action at once in the interests of the community to combat the prevalent ill-feeling against them was expressed by the president of the New Zealand Bank Officers’ Guild, Mr Edwards, in proposing the toast of “The Banks ’ at the annual smoke concert. “In view of the great services performed by the banks it seems strange,” said Mr Edwards, “that there is so much ill-feeling against them. In practically every section of the community the desire for the socialization of credit is rapidly gaining ground, and if the banks are desirous of combating the insidious propaganda against the present system of private banks, it is desirable that they should at once take action. It is necessary the banks should justify themselves in the minds of the public. As it is their detractors and calumniators have a free field. A noticeable feature of these troublesome times is the way in which the trading banks of the Empire have been able to stand up to the adverse conditions. We have not heard of one failure among British banks, attributable, no doubt, to the sound conservative lines on which the British banks operate. Our own banks operate on the same sound lines and the community owes much to the higher executive officers of our banks.

“It is not hard to visualize the many and complex problems these gentlemen have had to face and solve during the past few years,” concluded Mr Edwards, “questions not so much of banking as of national importance, and in solving these problems the banks, in many cases, arrived at decisions very much to their own disadvantage because they held that national considerations were of paramount importance.”