A History of Banks for Savings in Great Britain and Ireland

by William Lewins

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We have left ourselves little space to describe what remains to be told of the manner in which the business has been organized and performed. Happily, however, those parts of the system with which the public have more especially to do, have not wanted numerous and faithful exponents; by means of the newspaper press, shoals of official and non-official tractates, handy-books, magazine articles, and public lectures, the public have been made fully aware of all the practical details of a scheme which is at once so simple and so satisfactory in its working, and which is at the same time as capable of indefinite expansion as it is of infinite power for good. It is indispensable, notwithstanding that these details are now so well known,[185] that we should rapidly glance at some of them, prior to speaking of the special advantages which these arrangements have made possible.

With regard to Depositing Money. By the Post Office Savings Bank bill any person who will subscribe the requisite declaration that he is not a depositor in any other Savings Bank may now, on every working day of from six to ten hours' duration, deposit any sum not less than one shilling, and not more than 30l. in one year, in any of the 3,300 places in the United Kingdom where the Post Office has been opened as a Savings Bank; also, that for every pound so deposited for a month or more, interest at the rate of 2l. 10s. per cent. per annum shall be paid, and that while the money remains in the hands of the Post Office the credit of the British Government shall be staked for its due repayment when asked for.

Any person wishing to become a depositor in a Post Office Bank has only to go to that Money Order Office which is most convenient to him, subscribe the statutory declaration, and pay in to the postmaster or receiver the amount he wishes to deposit, and a bank book will be handed to him, properly numbered, and on which his name, address, and occupation will be written. The amount handed to the postmaster will be found entered as a first deposit in the proper column of the book, and this entry will be attested by the signature of the postmaster, and stamped with the official stamp of his office. From the moment the depositor gets his book handed to him he possesses, for all practical purposes, a sufficient guarantee for the absolute safety of his money.

This is, however, not the only security he has; and to explain the further process it is necessary to follow the money after it leaves the depositor's hands. The postmaster before giving up the book is required to enter the full particulars of the transaction in a single line on a Form of daily Savings Bank account supplied to him for the purpose. At the close of each day the local postmaster adds up the total amount received by him during that day on Savings Bank account, and, adding that sum to the account of Money Orders issued during the same day, sends the entire account to the chief Money Order Office in London. On its arrival at this office the account undergoes a primary check, and is then sent to the Savings Bank department, where it is thoroughly examined in all its details. In the first place, an acknowledgment is filled up and addressed[186] to every depositor named in the account. The account is then sent to the ledger branch, where its particulars are copied into the books of the department; and subsequently, but on the same day, to ensure accuracy and afford a check, each acknowledgment is compared by different officers with the entries made in the ledgers, and then despatched by the same night's post to the address furnished by the depositor.[187]

The receipt of this acknowledgment completes the depositor's parliamentary title to repayment in full of principal and interest. Should the depositor not receive his acknowledgment within ten days of making the deposit, application must be made (and it may always be made free of postage) to the Postmaster-General for it. Experience has shown that no depositor has been put to the trouble to write twice for an acknowledgment, and but a very small modicum indeed have written at all. Practically three days would suffice for the operations required in England, and four for the greater part of Ireland and Scotland; but in some few cases the longer period of ten days is necessary. Were it not for the check, moreover, which the department thus obtains upon its own officials, and the confidence which the arrangement gives to depositors, the acknowledgment might perhaps be dispensed with, inasmuch as the postmaster's entry in the depositor's book is not bad evidence that the money has reached the hands of a Government official,—a fact which, if it could not be disputed, would not, we should imagine, be set aside.

In every subsequent case where a person adds to his first deposit, exactly the same routine is followed. He may, however, if he desires it, or requires it, continue his deposits in another bank from that in which he originally opened his account; nay, if he chooses, he need not make two deposits in any one bank, but may take a tour throughout the country, or, if he lives in London, may go all round the metropolis to the 450 banks there, and see which he likes best, and no one will interfere with his freedom of choice. And though a depositor of this curious description would give additional trouble, the routine of the work is so simple that he would not embarrass the department in any way.[188]

With regard to Withdrawing Money. A person having once run up a score in the Post Office Banks, may withdraw it with great readiness and with extraordinary and unexampled facilities. A depositor who requires some, or all, of his money, has only to go to whichever Post Office Bank he likes best, in whatever part of the country he may happen to be at the time, and ask for the usual printed Form. He must fill up this Form with the number of his deposit-book, the name of the office where he commenced to make his deposits, the amount he wants, and the place where he wants it paid, and adding his name, address, and occupation, send the Form (which needs not to be post-paid, is addressed on the back, and provided with an adhesive seal,) to the Postmaster-General and wait the result.

Following the fortunes of this notice, we find that it arrives in proper course at the chief Savings Bank. The signature attached to it is there compared with the signature of the original declaration, and if, on comparison, there be no grounds for suspecting anything amiss, the notice is sent to the ledger keeper in charge of the account of the particular depositor. If it be found that he has a proper balance in the bank to meet his claim upon it, a warrant for payment is at once prepared. This warrant is an order to the postmaster named to pay the amount wanted; and after the amount of the warrant has been entered in the ledger, and checked by a superior officer, who certifies its correctness, it is at once sent off by post to the address furnished by the person withdrawing. At the same time, and by an admirable system of manifold writing,—suggested by Mr. West of the Mail Office for the use of other branches of the Post Office, and which has been with great advantage applied to Savings Bank operations,—the postmaster himself is furnished in fac-simile with a copy of the warrant sent to him in the nature of an advice.

When the postmaster is applied to for the money in question he carefully compares the warrant with the advice to pay, in the same way as he deals with the familiar money order; he also compares the signature to the receipt on the warrant with the signature in the depositor's book; and if he be satisfied with the scrutiny, he pays the money, entering the transaction in the withdrawal part of the depositor's book, and signing and stamping the book accordingly.[189] When the paid warrants are returned to the chief office, and when the postmaster sends up an account of the day's transactions, the accounts and entries are checked in the chief Money Order Office and the chief Savings Bank, in much the same way as described in the case of deposits; the whole being arranged to provide an admirable system of check in which two branches of the Post Office,—viz., the chief Money Order Office and the Receiver and Accountant-General's Office,—as well as the chief Savings Bank, are immediately concerned.[190]