BANK OF ENGLAND

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 5

BANK OF ENGLAND

; GOVERNOR SAYS BILL IS ; ABSOLUTELY FAIR HIDDEN RESERVES NO HIGHER THAN NECESSARY Recd. 5.5 p.m. London, Nov. 21. “Only ten letters opposing nationalisation have been received from 17,000 stockholders,” said Lord Catto, Governor of the Bank of England since 1944, giving evidence before a Select Committee considering the Bill which is to nationalise the Bank of England. Lord Catto added that he considered the purchase proposals absolutely fair. He declared that the bank’s hidden reserves were not excessive, but must remain secret, because disclosure would be against the national interests perhaps detrimental to the bank.

“If the reserves are disclosed many people would think they are very high and others they were not quite so high as thought, because there have been some wild suggestions as to what reserves are,” he said. “They are no higher than necessary for maintaining the bank’s position of authority as the head of Britain’s monetary service.” Lord Catto, questioned about power to obtain general information from other banks, said a great deal of information from great commercial banks was necessary in order that the Bank of England and the Treasury might have the country’s financial picture as a whole. . He had never been refused information by banks, but sometimes had to use a good deal of persuasion. The committee, by three votes to two, reported the Bill back to the House of Commons unaltered.