72 FKAXCE - CREDIT 



The management is entrusted to a board of directors, generally fifteen 

 in number, who give their services gratuitously, receiving, if desired, count- 

 ers as tokens of their having been present at the meetings of the council. 

 All persons, women and minors included, may make deposits on their own 

 account or on that of others. 



A legislative provision, quite pecuhar to French savings banks, 

 enjoins that no person shall hold more than one savings bank book; 

 any one obtaining two books, whether from the same bank or from 

 two ordinan,'^ banks, or from one ordinary- and one postal bank, risks losing 

 the interest on the sums deposited for a period, which may extend to 

 three years. 



Deposits must not be less than one franc, and in no book may more 

 than 1,500 fr?ncs be entered. Should the deposits exceed that amount, 

 government 2ofr. stock is purchased in the name of the depositors. 

 Mutual Aid Societies, charitable institutions, co-operative societies and 

 similar organisations alone are authorised by the Department of Labour 

 to make deposits to the amount of 15,000 fr. 



I^he rate of interest is the same as that of the Deposit and Consign- 

 ment Bank, except for a deduction of not less than 25 centimes and not 

 more than 50 centimes, each bank is at Uberty to fix itself. Since the 

 rate lixed by the Deposit and Consignment Bank is at present 3 V^ % that 

 of the Savings Banks varies from 3 to 2 ^/\ %, according to the Bank. 



At the request of the holder, an account opened at one savings bank 

 may be transferred to another. Payments are generally made by the 

 bank at sight, but they are only obligatory at fifteen days' notice. But, 

 in case of absolute necessity, or to avoid a crisis in times of panic, a 

 Decree of the Council of State may limxit the paj-ments to 50 fr. per 

 fortnight. This is the so-called saving clause which was made law in 

 1881, in order to avoid a repetition of the inconvenience experienced 

 during the crises of 1848 and 1870. 



The crisis of 1848 overtook the savings banks v/ith a debt to the depos- 

 itors of 355,000,000; of this amount 65,000,000 frs. were in current account 

 at the Treasury. Owing to the political situation, many of the depositors 

 crowded to the banks to claim their money. As it was impossible to satisfy 

 them at once, the Government made solemn promises to reassure them, and, 

 by a decree of March 7th., raised the rate of interest to 5 %, But the crowd 

 of creditors at the banks remained undiminished, and a decree of ^larcli 

 9th. limited payments to 100 fr. for each book and offered to convert the 

 remainder, half into bills on the Treasury at from 4 to 6 months, and the 

 rest into 5 % Government stock at par. But at that time the Treasury 

 bonds were 30 or 40 below par and Government stock was quoted at 70. As a 

 remedy for this state of affairs, the books were converted by a decree of 

 July 7th. into certificates of 5 % stock at 80 fr., a figure too high in view of 

 the quotations, and later, on November 21st., the deposits thus con- 

 verted received a bonus of 8.40fr. for every 5fr. of stock, that is a sum 

 equal to the difference between 80 fr. and 71.06 fr., the average rate for the 

 three months preceding the day or which the conversion was ordered. 



