Monday, February 12, 2024

Monday Mural

Joining with Sami and others for Monday Mural. 

This is not really a mural but rather a building name, the building being encased by Brighton Antique Dealer's posh retirement home, although I can't understand how it doesn't show in my photos. It must be set back a bit further. 

My parents banked with ES&A Bank, English, Scottish and Australian Bank. At some point there was a merger and it became known as the ANZ Bank, Australia, New Zealand Bank. I've subsequently banked with the company for all of my adult years. In the 1980s we wanted to change our home loan from a building society to the ANZ. After an interview with a relieving bank manager at our local branch, we were denied the loan. This was wrong as we could clearly service the load repayments.

I wrote to ANZ head office and intimated that we were denied a loan because we were a male couple applying for a loan. That set a cat among pigeons. 

We were invited to meet an area manager at a drive through bank (what were they about?) in Hawthorn, who immediately apologised and approved the loan on the spot. He was a nice down to earth bloke.

So through thick and thin, we've stayed with ANZ Bank. It ceased making money from us for many years ago, but it used to do quite well out of us with mortgage and credit card interest. 

Well, that is more than you needed to know as I post this most unusual building sign. I've never seen a font like this. Have you?




36 comments:

  1. That looks like a Celtic or Gaelic font (don't know the difference) - quite smart, though. Well done for challenging the decision - there are some right idiots around.

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    1. JB, that makes sense for a bank with Scottish in its name. I'd go for Scottish Gaelic.

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  2. It makes me wonder what (if anything) happened to the employee who originally denied the loan? I've never seen font like that on a building. Generally speaking, signs are meant to be quickly read and understood. I'd be puzzling over this one out.

    We wanted to keep our business and personal finances completely separate, and so we, in a fit of genius, decided to do that by using two different banks. We tried to take out a loan to buy a house. We were closing on a house, expected the money within a 10 day period, but had found a house that we needed to close quickly on. We went through the process for the time, and they were demanding a lot of stuff from us, and we're running back and forth bringing them the records they demanded. We had no other loans. None. They denied the loan after all that running around. We walked into our bank, explained the situation, and they gave us the loan in a few minutes. Yeah. As promised, the loan was paid off the following Friday. Guess which bank kept our business?

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    1. Debby, I expect the young smart arse whippersnapper was quickly promoted, but maybe he was 'advised'.
      I find the script easy enough to read but it is very unusual.
      That's a good bank story and I expect you could find the same here. Mortgage brokers have become very popular now, doing the hard yards with banks to get you the loan, with the best deal. Yours sounds simple, a bridging loan, which we ourselves have taken in the past when a sale and purchase date didn't match up. If your assets match what you want the loan for, and your credit record is good, it seems easy.

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  3. That is an attractive building and, as you say, an unusual font. Definitely looks vaguely Gaelic.

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    1. JayCee, I think there is some kind of consensus here.

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  4. I stayed with ANZ too. The interest advantage is no longer compared to its peers

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    1. Like buying petrol Roentare. There isn't a petrol station that is always much cheaper than others.

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  5. Throughout the 1950s, we had banking day at primary school where my parents gave me 2 shillings to save for the future. Was that money, and all the interest, ever returned?

    Yesterday I was going out to Springvale cemetery and had a look at my old State Bank, so important in childhood. It now sells car parts!

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    1. Hels, Commonwealth Bank? I remember withdrawing the small balance in about 1980. I can't remember if I formally closed the account. There are so few banks now, and few who have normal counter tellers.

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    2. Andrew, the State Bank of Victoria didn't close its doors until long after I finished school. But I wonder if they sent my weekly 2 shillings weekly deposits directly to the Commonwealth Bank. I could be mega wealthy!!

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    3. Look yourself up at the unclaimed moneys at the government website.

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  6. We were loyal ANZ customers (Himself used to work for them which was really great during the interest hikes of the '80s). Then they started closing country branches all over the country. My 92 year old aunt now doesn't have a bank branch and doesn't get internet or phone banking. They closed the branch here before we moved so we switch to That Bank. There was also an unfortunate episode with ANZ that nearly saw the money for our block of land go into the ether.

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    1. Merlot, bank closures are a fact of life. While it can be hard for older people we can't expect them to stay open if no one visits them. I would like to think all post offices can act as a bank, and that someone trustworthy can help old people with banking.

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    2. A good point but there must be some way.

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  7. Well that is beautifully done, I love it - the ANZ is a good bank in my book.

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    1. Margaret, perhaps as good as any other bank is.

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  8. I've seen font like that in really old books, usually only on the title page. I remember someone being denied a loan because they didn't have money in the bank. Said someone declared if he had money in the bank he wouldn't need a f***ing loan! Bank manager tried to make him understand that if he showed he was able to save money, then he was capable of making loan repayments. The somebody then went to a credit company and declared himself bankrupt and got a loan.

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    1. Good story River, but I am not sure why a bankrupt person would be given a loan.

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  9. That's a nice building. The font looks quite historical.

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    1. Pradeep, it would be quite an old building in the street. I'm not saying the oldest though.

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  10. Nice font on that building, don't know the name. We bank with ANZ, but our home loan was taken with another bank as their rates were better then.

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    1. Sami, the t in the font would be particularly difficult to read if on its own.

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  11. What a fascinating building! It looks more like a church than a bank. I guess that speaks of the image that banking wanted to suggest - solidity, reliability, trustworthiness. Good on the bloke at the drive-in bank!

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    1. Yes, I guess that is was the image such a bank building projected. No opinion on the font YP?

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    2. Why would they have a font in a bank?

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    3. Yes, I can't see any connection between the two different meanings.

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  12. ANZ was recommended to us when we visited Australia House a couple of years before we actually arrived here - and it’s been our ‘main’ bank ever since. Dallied with others plus building societies to get favourable interest but many of them have gone or been swallowed up. State Bank ring a bell?
    Our mortgage was arranged at a very posh city branch in Elizabeth Street - I vaguely remember big doors lots of wood and high high ceilings
    Not sure why but your posts aren’t arriving in the morning so I’m missing some of them - hence no comments

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    1. Cathy, I am surprised you weren't recommended the Commonwealth Bank. Oh yes, the infamous State Bank. I know the ANZ city building you mention. Not now but not so long ago it was the bank for currency exchange.

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  13. Well diving in and hi, I would say the font reads more like 'Anguish' scoffish and Ausgralith. But someone dearly loved carving it ;)

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    1. Welcome Thelma. Yes, I can well imagine the carver did enjoy the experience .

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  14. I hope they leave that exterior in the conversion. Banking is changing, I have been inside to see a teller once in the past 4 years. Branches are closing. Oh, and if you have a little cash in your account, they are still making money on you, by loaning it out to someone else.

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    1. Travel, I'm sure the building is safe. The bank is not paying me much to lend out my money, but I have very little in the bank.

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  15. I like the font but I don't think I have ever seen it before either.

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    1. Pat, we all seem to agree that it is very unusual.

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