LOAN ALI i v ITIES.
In one respect I. am inclined to think that Scottish banking may, perhaps, have widened in its activities during recent years rather more even than in the case of banking south of the Tweed. The rise in bankers' loans has, of course, been general throughout the United Kingdom, and I am not suggesting that even now the proportion of Advances to Deposits may be as high north as it is south of the Tweed. There was a time, however, when Scottish bankers undoubtedly sat too tightly upon their Deposits, and although the securities in which they invested were always of the gilt-edged order, the result was to impart a little too much of the Trust" T;st " element into the banks. In recent years, however, there has been a considerable change in this respect, and while in no way departing from the " safety first ' principle, business in Loans and Bills has materially increased, and there is no doubt that Scottish bankers are far more in touch with the business activities of Scotland than at any previous time in their history. Especially is this noticeable in the case of certain of the banks which have retained their independence, the Loans and Advances of the Bank of Scotland, for example, having risen during the past two years by about £1,000,000, those of the Commercial Bank of Scotland by about the same amount, while the Royal have risen by over £3,000,000, and the Union of Scotland by nearly £2,000,000. To express the same tendency in a more general fashion, it may be noted that while during two years the total Deposits of eight of the leading Scotch banks rose by about £10,000,000, Advances increased by about £12,000,000.
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