Bankers meet to hail 200 years' saving

THE bicentenary of the savings bank movement will be marked with a conference in Edinburgh next week of bankers, church representatives, academics and anti-poverty campaigners.

In 1810, the Rev Henry Duncan, recognised as the father of the movement, founded a savings bank in his church hall near Dumfries as a way of addressing the poverty of his parishioners.

The conference, in the General Assembly Hall on The Mound next Wednesday, will ask how banking and finance can serve the needs of people today.

Keynote speakers include Lady Susan Rice of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland, former moderator Very Reverend Dr John Miller, and communities minister Alex Neil.

Conference organiser Rev Dr Graham Blount said: "The programme sets Henry Duncan in context, debates the values he embodied in the savings bank movement and explores new ways of tackling the problems Duncan faced 200 years ago."

A second conference next Thursday will look at "200 Years of Savings Banks".