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U.S. Bank Gives Investors Guns Instead Of Interest Payments

MANISTIQUE, Michigan (dpa) – North Country Bank and Trust is certain it has hit the target with a marketing strategy which plays to the local population’s obsession with hunting.

Since 1990, the small regional bank in the U.S. state of Michigan has been offering high-quality shotguns and sporting rifles rather than interest payments to those who deposit funds for long-term investment.

Once they have signed up for a fixed deposit, the trigger-happy investors receive a gun made by Weatherby, a highly regarded maker of hunting guns, giving up in return all claim on interest payments.

Around 1,000 mostly male clients from 50 states have taken up the offer of an immediate dividend in the shape of a shotgun or rifle, according to North Country Bank savings adviser Rosemary Garvin.

The bank’s advertisement placed in hunting magazines across the country has brought in millions of dollars, repaying the expense handsomely, she says.

Traditional U.S. savings institutions are in stiff competition, not only with each other, but with investment funds offering higher returns from the stock market.

North Country president Ronald Ford hit upon the brilliant idea 11 years ago of offering goods immediately rather than the traditional interest after a fixed period.

A keen hunter himself and the proud owner of six hunting rifles and three shotguns, he realised that nothing would work better as bait for the keen hunters and fisherfolk of his region than the offer of high-quality equipment related to their outdoor passions.

Contact was made with Weatherby and a deal quickly struck. the gunmaker is now producing a limited special edition of its sought-after guns solely for the bank, entitled “Lazermark”, with the stocks made of finely engraved oak.

For the less bloodthirsty among the bank’s depositors there are other offers they can take advantage of. A vegetarian might choose the set of golf clubs or a clock, a birdwatcher the pair of binoculars in the catalogue.

But the guns remain the favourite by far. Depending on the amount deposited, clients can choose their Weatherby from a range of 16 models, the most expensive of which costs 15,000 dollars at a gunsmith.

A client depositing 869 dollars for 20 years for example can select the hunting rifle “Lightweight Mark V Synthetic”, whose normal price is 779 dollars, although at an annual average interest rate of 5.4 per cent, he would receive more than double that after 20 years.

Carolynne Jarvis of the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence shakes her head in incomprehension. “North Country Bank has initiated a bad scheme. Weapons are always potentially dangerous,” she says.

The partnership, formed by doctors, police officers, lawyers’ groups and child protection organizations in 1995, is opposed on principle to handing out firearms as an inducement to save.

But this Michigan bank is by no means alone in its strategy reminiscent of the Wild West. Other small financial institutions in Montana and Texas have adopted this method of gaining new clients.

Ford does not see a problem in his marketing strategy, pointing out that only hunting rifles and shotguns are on offer, not the handguns that are in such common use among criminals in the United States.

In any case clients applying for firearms have to provide a certificate from the police, he says, indicating that as long as demand continues to boom, the unconventional marketing strategy will continue.

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