The occasion was reported by the Erdington News:

The new permanent premises of the Birmingham Municipal Bank, situated at 206, Rookery Road, Handsworth, were opened on Saturday by Lady Bower in the presence of a large gathering. Preceding the opening, tea was served at Rookery Road P.M. Church Hall, after which the Lord Mayor (Alderman A H James) presided over a meeting.

Among those also present were Alderman Sir Percival Bower (chairman of the Bank Committee), the Lady Mayoress, the Chief Constable (Sir Charles H Rafter), Mr J P Hilton (general manager of the bank), Councillors A H Cooper, C H Clutterbuck and G F McDonald, the Rev J Scarlett (minister of Rookery Road Church), Messrs S Darlington, E J Thomas, and other members of the West Bromwich Board of Guardians.

Prior to presenting Lady Bower with a silver cake dish, the Lord Mayor said that there were 1,513 depositors in the Farcroft Branch, despite the fact that it had been only a temporary branch, and the amount standing to their credit was £25,436. It seemed to him that nothing would stem the progress of the bank, as it had firmly gained the confidence of the Birmingham public. They in the City Council had risen to be proud of Birmingham's latest trading undertaken, and their thanks were due to those who had helped to build it up. Birmingham was the only city in the United Kingdom to enjoy the privilege of a Municipal Bank.

Alderman Sir Percival Bower urged the desirability of extending municipal banking facilities. He said Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, and Swansea, to mention only a few towns, had promoted Parliamentary Bills, included in which were provisions for the establishment of Municipal Banks, but for reasons best known to themselves, the Local Legislation Committee of the Government thought it wise to turn down those particular clauses.

He submitted that if there had been no demand in Birmingham for facilities such as the bank provided, it would never have prospered as it had done. It had been said that the existing thrift facilities could have served all the purposes of the Municipal Bank. One was entitled to ask whether the joint stock banks and other thrift institutions had really made an effort to secure the type of depositor that the Municipal Bank had catered for.

By the establishment and continued success of the bank, they were serving a great social needed and purpose which the other institutions to which he had referred could not possibly meet. Why should the facilities they in Birmingham enjoyed be denied to other municipalities? Was it vested interest?Birmingham had clearly made it possible for any Government to extend those facilities with ample safeguards to other municipalities. He would go further and say that any Government could only resist public opinion up to a stage, and beyond that public opinion would sweep them away.

No Government could afford to continue to stand in the way of the demand of large, well-governed municipalities who were steadily insisting upon the same facilities being given to them as Birmingham enjoyed, and he was hoping, whatever might be the outcome of the enquiry which had been held in the matter, the Government would take its courage in both hands, and, despite opposition that might be forthcoming, grant to other municipalities equal, if not more extensive facilities. If this Government did not move speedily in the direction he had indicated, they would find some other Government who succeeded them might be prepared to give even wider powers to municipalities than those that would at the moment satisfy them.