A BANKING COMEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1098, 17 May 1913, Page 4

A BANKING COMEDY.

“ RUN ” STARTED BY A BELL-BOY.

A run on the Montreal City and District Savings Bank, admittedly one of the strongest and most liquid banking institutions in Canada, was recently started by a small boy. As is well-known, money for speculative purposes has been extremely scarce in Canada for five months. Two brokers were discussing the tightness of the market in nn hotel one afternoon, and one remarked to the other that he “ could not get a cent, from the City and District Bank” —in loans, of course.

A bell-boy, overhearing the remark concluded that something was wrong with the bank. He telephoned to a friend in a large factory warning him to take out bis money at once. The friend told fellow-employees, and presently a run started at the branch bank in the factory district. It spread quickly through the city, and practically every one of the bank’s thirty odd branches was affected. The run continued for about three days with intermittent vigor befor the panic was stopped. While small depositors, most of them Jews and foreigners, were withdrawing their money, big firms were turning over balances from other banks to the City and District to restore confidence and help the bank in its emergency. The bank, however, needed little help. Against its deposits of over £5, 200,000, it bad cash on hand and in other banks of nearly ,£BOO,OOO, and 98 per cent of its assets were liquid Dominion Government, Provincial and municipal bond, convertible almdst at notice into cash. They simply kept paying out until confidence was restored, and money began to come back.