FINANCE experts are recommending local banking in Hampshire to safeguard smaller businesses in the county.

The European Conference on Banking and the Economy saw scholars from across the world come to Winchester to debate the future of money in the UK.

The conference saw the experts call for the UK to adopt a more European approach to savings and loans.

Professor Neil Marriott, dean of Winchester Business School, said: “Knowledge-based economies are this city’s future and it’s very important for us to learn lessons from other economies where local banking has been the cornerstone of development.”

Around 90 per cent of the UK’s deposits are stored in major commercial banks such as NatWest and HSBC but in Germany those figures are only 15 per cent.

Instead, around 70 per cent of the German population store their savings in local savings or co-operative banks that are under state or town control.

Speaking at the conference last Friday, Wolfgang Neumann, director of the EU-representation of the German Savings Bank Association said local banking focused more on the needs of the community rather than purely making profit.

He said: “The overwhelming role of the savings bank is to ensure open and reliable services to private clients and the regional principle means the bank has to focus on its geographical area.”

Richard Werner, professor of banking at the University of Southampton, added: “If this was happening here, Winchester would have at least one bank that was locally-run and the staff would not change and would know the business leaders since they were children.”

But other experts warned that anyone looking to set up a local bank should be sure they had the capital to keep it running for three or more years before starting.

Invited guest Cllr Barry Lipscomb, Mayor of Winchester, agreed with the experts and called for the community to have more of a say.

He said: “The concept of local banking is very much in keeping with the current work on localism and it’s very important.

“Putting the community in charge of our destiny is something I very much support and the council sees our economic prosperity as our highest priority.”