§ MR.HOWELL (Bethnal Green, N.E.)asked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether, in a great number of instances, Trustee Savings Banks are in the habit of calling themselves "Government Security Savings Banks," and otherwise describing themselves in such manner as to lead to the belief that the State is responsible to depositors for their investments; whether there is any guarantee that deposits in Trustee Savings Banks are actually invested in Government Securities; and, whether the Government will prohibit the use of a title or a description which is calculated to mislead and deceive depositors, and intending depositors, in such banks, and thereby cause them to run the risk of losing their hard earned savings?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Mr. W. H. SMITH) (Strand, Westminster)Her Majesty's Government have no informa- 260 tion as to the number of Trustee Savings Banks which may be in the habit of describing themselves in the manner referred to. I am informed that a case in which a misleading description had been adopted by a savings bank (Monk-wearmouth) was recently brought under the notice of the National Debt Commissioners, and a remonstrance was addressed to the Trustees by the Commissioners, who have, however, no legal powers of interference. There is no guarantee that deposits in Trustee Savings Banks are actually invested in Government Securities beyond the responsibilities imposed upon Trustees and Managers of obeying the provisions of the law, which requires them to pay over to the National Debt Commissioners all moneys received from depositors, except moneys deposited for special investment under Section 16 of the Savings Banks Act, 1863. Section 5 of the Act 26 & 27 Vict. c. 87 gives the Trustee Savings Banks the privilege of describing themselves under the title of "saving banks certified under the Act of 1863," and prohibits any other Bank or Association from using or adopting such title; but the Act does not forbid the adoption by savings banks of any other title or description. If it should appear that there is, in fact, any widespread misapprehension on the part of depositors in these institutions in consequence of the employment of misleading titles by Trustee Savings Banks, Her Majesty's Government will be ready to consider whether the title expressed in the section of the Act referred to may not be made obligatory to the exclusion of any other.