From 50 Years Ago: Banks and The Banking Habit.

In his speech at the Annual General Meeting of the shareholders, the retiring Chairman of the State Bank expressed keen concern, not about the growing demand for bank credit in the country, but about the tardy response of the banking system to this challenge. The growing demand for bank credit was not a matter of concern…

The real reason for this state of affairs is the slow rate of growth of deposits. If the banking system has to fulfil the role laid down for it, it has to have sufficient funds to supply the needs of industry and trade and also support new in-vestments – a feat which it is unable to perform at the moment…The banking system should “continue the drive for promoting banking habit in new areas and for generally increasing bank deposits, with all the force at its command”. It has been further suggested that a concerted cooperative effort in this direction by all the banks might be needed, and the support of the State Bank in such a venture has been offered.