Submitted by admin on April 22, 2009 - 22:42
Trading Bank Credit
The pattern of the banks' advances is clear from the following table which classifies the total into broad groups at 10 July 1963.
| Amount £(million) | Per cent of Total | |
| Farming, forestry, hunting, and fishing | 33.4 | 17.4 |
| Manufacturing (including mining and quarrying) | 61.8 | 32.1 |
| Construction | 8.8 | 4.6 |
| Transport and communication | 3.4 | 1.8 |
| Commerce, trade, and finance | 52.7 | 27.4 |
| Services | 8.2 | 4.2 |
| Other (including local bodies) | 2.8 | 1.5 |
| Personal advances (a) For housing | 8.6 | 4.5 |
| (b) Other | 12.8 | 6.6 |
| 192.5 | 100.0 |
Over recent years trading bank advances and discounts showed little growth until 1961, if measured by averaging monthly figures. In 1955, for example, the average was £180 million; in 1959 it was down to £166 million; but in 1960 it had increased to £176 million and to 197 million in 1962 and 1963. Unused credit limits averaged £143 million in 1963.
Large as the figures for advances and unused limits may seem they are easily dwarfed by the figures for debits to customers' accounts, which give an insight not only into the major role of cheques in the payments system but also into the physical work the banks must cope with in providing a cheque service. The monthly average of banks' debits in 1963 was £662.4 million, which gives a total for the year as a whole of £7,949 million. Changes in the amount of monthly debits are an important indicator of the state of the economy and show whether money in the form of bank balances is circulating more or less rapidly.
At the present time there is little sign that the trading banks will be in a position either to seek a sustained and substantial increase in their advance business or to diversify their activities very widely. On the other hand, it also appears that they will not be confronted with the problem of competing with a postal settlement system (GIRO), which at one time appeared a likely prospect.
