Municipal Savings Banks
This form of savings banks properly belongs to a strong class of municipalities. They can only thrive in places where the local spirit is strong, the local government pure, and where the local officials are accustomed to wield a large measure of authority. Accordingly, they have come into being and met with success in those countries where the early history of the town made a large measure of local autonomy a necessity. Towns of this class possess the public spirit and the intelligent administration required for the success of such a public venture. They also possess a fund of gratuitous public service among the citizens which may be drawn upon when occasion requires.
Such banks are found in Austria, France, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, and Japan. The best examples are to be found in Germany, where they have been in operation for a long period of years. Savings institutions exist here at present in great variety and number, including State or Province Savings Banks, City Savings Banks, Township Savings Banks, County Savings Banks, Bezirk (District) Savings Banks, Private Savings Banks, and Co-operative Savings Banks.
These banks have some 19,000,000 pass books out and their deposits amount to 13,500,000,000 marks ($3,213,000,000). These deposits are practically all guaranteed by the various municipalities of the Empire, which condition forms a bulwark of confidence in the security of private wealth and earnings that cannot be shaken by hard times, panics, bank failures, etc.