APPEAL TO BANKERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 344, 3 May 1928, Page 12

APPEAL TO BANKERS

CHAMBERS ASK FOR LOWER RATES IMPROVED MONETARY CONDITION (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. An appeal for the reduction of the rate on bank overdrafts is contained in a letter from the president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, Mr. D. J. McGowan, to the chairman of the Associated Banks. “When the association last addressed you on the subject of interest rates,’ says the letter, “the figures of the March quarter were not available. Having since been made public they afforded ample proof of the easier monetary condition of the Dominion. If the figures were available relative to the deposits and advances of banks to-day, would they not disclose the position even better than that shown by the figures of the March quarter? The averages of the trade figures for the year ended March 31 also are evidence that for the time being at least a check has been given to overtrading. “In the circumstances my executive is of the opinion that the associated banks should reduce the rates charged for advances on overdraft at least by the extent of half per cent, added in May last. If not expedient to make the reduction to apply immediately, at least an announcement could be made to the effect that the reduction would take place say on June 1. “The rates charged by the Associated Banks are not only accepted as an indext of the conditions within the Dominion. and govern the rates of financial operations, such as loans on mortgage, but largely ‘set the pace’ of development in both primary and secondary industries. No evidence of returned confidence would be more significant than the decision which we again ask the Associated Banks to make without delay.”