Bernard Hickey : Investors bank on safety

4:00AM Sunday Oct 12, 2008 Bernard Hickey In days gone by savers could always rely on the bank as a safe place to park money. Most took bank safety for granted. Their first thought was which bank offered the best rate and what options were there to lift returns. Many bank-type investors turned to finance companies. Few questioned the safety of either banks or finance companies. With more than $3.8 billion tied up or lost in 34 frozen or dying finance companies, investors are much more risk averse. Their first port of call was the banks. The amount saved in term deposits rose $13.3b to $86.759b in the year to June 30, data from bank disclosure statements shows. Only $2b of that was transferred from finance companies to banks. The rest is from increased savings and from money pulled out of sharemarket funds and property sales.... [read full story]