An interesting letter to the editor in a local paper about Ben Chifley’s (past Australian Prime Minister) idea of a nationalised bank being a must have.. Well we had that in Australia with the commonwealth bank then that was privatised…

Okay so what if We had a bank that had some form of Co-operative approach or structure. One where the people had a say in how it worked, one where the idea of prudency was revered, where cash (and the customer) were king, and other assets were of value too, but the cash side kept building (perhaps to a debt reserve fund or similar). A bank where the people really cared because the bank was the people. A bank where you as a customer felt like the service team really did care, a bank where the service team not only handed out loans for building houses and businesses but turned up to see  it finished…. In short a bank that set it’s own highly rigourous standards without the Government having to intervene, as the bank not only met the stds set but exceeded them with ease at every turn.

In a time of greed, money grabs, plunging values and challenges a co-operative approach could make a world of difference.