The story
The Post Office Savings Bank was set up in 1867 to encourage thrift by ordinary people, and was immediately successful. One of the benefits of the Post Office Savings Bank was that customers could deposit and withdraw money at any branch of the bank. Business was conducted from post offices which were located in towns and cities all over New Zealand. By the 1910s customers were asking for the ability to withdraw their funds by cheque but successive postmasters-general refused to allow this, stating that the Post Office Savings Bank was not the same as a commercial bank, having as its objective thrift and regular deposits, not convenience. This had the effect of making it easy to deposit money but harder to withdraw it. However the bank eventually moved with the times and cheques were introduced in 1958. During its long history the Post Office Savings Bank introduced various other products including school banking (the 'Squirrel' savings accounts) and Bonus Bonds.
From Wikipedia’s article on Post Office Savings Bank (New Zealand), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4