National Giro (Hansard, 7 March 1968)

§ 8. Mr. Jopling
asked the Postmaster-General if he will make a statement on the progress of the Giro.

§ Mr. Edward Short
The arrangements for setting up the National Giro service continue to make satisfactory progress, and I expect the service to open towards the end of this year as planned.

§ Mr. Jopling
Would the right hon. Gentleman tell us how it is intended to invest the money which will accrue and how soon he hopes to get £150 million of investment so that the interest rates will cover costs and the break-even point will be reached?

§ Mr. Short
That is another matter. If the hon. Gentleman wants detailed replies to questions like that, he must put down a Question.

§ Mr. Bryan
Would the Postmaster-General say from the surveys which I know the Post Office has been making what sort of number of customers it expects to have for the Giro in the opening year?

§ Mr. Short
At the moment we are allocating large numbers of registration numbers to business firms. Later this year we hope to start doing this with private individuals as well. The response to date has been rather better than we expected.