Banking on a good report from the dreaded inspectors
They turned up unannounced. They cased the joint. And then they moved in. Time for the bank staff to get nervous.
They were the bank inspectors, and woe betide the bank manager if things were not up to scratch as they turned the place over.
Afterwards the inspectors would prepare a report of their findings. A host of these reports dating back to the 1920s have come to light for the National Provincial Bank in Wellington.
They were among documents salvaged years ago and shine a light on very different times far removed from these days of internet banking and, of course, waves of closures of smaller branches.
These were times when many records were handwritten, and customers were well-known faces.
The bank opened on December 13, 1923, in the front room of ground floor premises owned by T.G. Newman in Church Street in Wellington, the first manager being Mr C.A. Lewis. It was not there long before surrendering the lease and moving to a newly-built bank building, also in Church Street, which was completed in 1926.
National Provincial is a disappeared name in banking, merging with the Westminster Bank to become the National Westminster Bank – NatWest – in 1970. The Wellington branch of NatWest closed in July 2016.
