§ Sir E. Graham-Littleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to what extent the Post Office Savings Bank uses private enterprise banks for its banking purposes; and how, in transactions with the Post Office Savings Bank, depositors are protected from disclosures to such third parties as private enterprise bank officials.
§ Mr. Wilfred PalingI have been asked to reply. The cash lodgments and withdrawals of the Post Office Savings Bank are merged with other Post Office moneys in official accounts held with commercial banks. Cheques accepted for deposits in the Savings Bank are necessarily cleared through the normal banking channels. This involves no disclosure of the state of an account to other parties, but it is a necessary consequence of the acceptance of cheques that banking officials can observe that a cheque has passed through an account of the Post Office in respect of a Savings Bank transaction.