Mention has been made of the distinctions between country and London banking, and one of these appears to be the adoption of the “loan-account” system by the City banks, but “loan accounts” are not by any means unknown in the provinces, though the opening of them is exceptional. Moreover, though this system is greatly in evidence at the head-offices of the joint-stock banks, the farther one moves away from Lombard Street the less firmly is it established, and one finds in the books of the London branch banks a medley of the two systems. That is to say, some customers adopt the “loan-account,” and others pay a rate upon their daily debtor balances, together with a commission on the turn-over of their accounts. When a “loan account” is opened by a customer, the banks do not charge a commission upon his current account, but, as we shall see, neither do they neglect to make amends for this omission. A customer, we will suppose, when the Bank rate is at 3 per cent. obtains a loan of £20,000 from his banker at Bank rate. He draws a cheque for this sum, which the banker debits to a “loan account” in his name, then places £20,000 to the credit of his current or running account. Now the interest at the rate of, say, 3 per cent. is calculated on the loan account, so if the customer’s average credit balance for the half-year amounts to about £4,000, then he has paid 3 per cent. per annum upon £4,000 which he has never used. In other words, he has given his banker something like £60 for working his account during the half-year. Further, some London banks charge a commission of ⅛ per cent. on the amount of the loan. This they add each half-year to his interest, which, in the present instance, would be debited in his current account pass-book thus: To Interest, £325. By carefully checking his banker’s charges he will make this discovery, and, of course, promptly demand that £25 be returned to him. It can now be seen that the London bank-manager is as eager to snatch a commission as his country _confrère_, and, moreover, that he is not without his opportunities, which, when the client is considered safe, he seldom neglects. In other words, he does his duty like other honest folk whose misfortune it is to be employees; and he does not specify the ⅛ per cent. on £20,000 in the pass-book for the simple reason that he knows it is safer disguised as interest.