SIR – When I started my banking career way back in the autumn of 1948 the world was a vastly different place to the one of easy money access as it is today with credit cards available everywhere.
Integrity was the word drummed into the new recruits of the banking business, I being one of them – a timid 16-year-old grammar schoolgirl entering a very strict workplace.
Mature, well educated gentlemen held the key positions in the bank branch.
Ladies were merely ledger clerks or shorthand typists.
Not many people held bank accounts with the exception of the professional classes.
The vast majority of the working people were paid in cash on Friday and all seemed to manage their affairs very well, not getting into debt as so often is the case today.
The branch manager was an imposing mature figure who knew all his customers very well as portrayed in the popular TV series Dad’s Army, a veritable Captain Mainwaring resplendent in his bowler hat and pin- striped trousers.
Loans were not given out easily as has been the case in recent times.
Money was very hard to come by. It was like trying to get blood out of a stone. Local directors of the bank controlled the money supply from the local head office situated in Birmingham.
It’s a pity this system was not kept in place today thereby ensuring a vast amount of money was not readily available to all and sundry without any means of security.
CONSTANCE BOWCOTT Worcester (retired 30 years with a pension I hope will remain in place)
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