proclaiming that the German banks, for example, have been able to assist industry much more readily and extensively than their English rivals, by making advances to it on terms which were not strictly of a banking character, according to English ideas. The German banks work with their own capital, as opposed to their customers' deposits, much more than the English. In so far as they do so they are not doing what we call banking, the essence of which is that you borrow money, repayable practically at call, and lend it. Lending shareholders' money which you have got for all time is quite a different business.
This contention was dealt with and to a certain extent admitted by the Financial Facilities Committee. Under the heading of Extended Credit Facilities it included "loans involving a lock-up of funds for a more or less extended period and secured upon assets not readily realizable, including loans required for giving long trading credit, either at home or abroad, and loans secured against capital goods which are either dependent upon future profits for repayment, or will be replaced ultimately by an issue of new capital."
It considered that the banks as at present constituted, however willing they might be, would only be able to provide credit of this kind to
