The Customer's Guide to Banking. By Henry Warren. (Grant Richards.
6s.)—Mr. Warren, who wrote "How to Deal with Your Banker," now follows up the attack—what he says practically amounts to an attack—with the volume before us. It is a " guide to banking," not because it tells one how to be a banker, but because it guides the customer in his choice and in his deal- ings. There can be no doubt but that the private customer is not very generously dealt with by the average bank. (By "private" we mean the independent or professional as opposed to the com- mercial customer.) He wants an advance, for which he deposits security of an absolutely unimpeachable kind ; but he is charged 5 per cent., and probably something more, under the name of "com- mission." No cheapness of money affects the rate. The bank promptly cuts down the interest on a deposit when the Bank rate falls, but it by no means always alters the rate of its charges. A subject of more general interest is the ratio of reserve to liabilities. This varies in a very remarkable way. Mr. Warren gives a table, from which we gather that the lowest ratio is 5.4 and the highest 28-2. Martin's Bank shows the highest figure ; for the lowest our readers must go to the table itself. Of course, the Bank of England far exceeds all other establishments with its 41-3. But then the Bank of England has to be content with 10 per cent. or less, in order that its joint-stock rivals may pay 20 per cent. or more. We need hardly say that Mr. Warren has much that is both interesting and instructive to tell us. One conclusion we may safely draw, that the Government might fairly increase the facilities in the banking line which it affords to the public.
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