Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

522 HISTORY OF THE BANKto the Pension Fund of The Canadian Bank of Commerce,and for the purposes of the fund were entitled to count servicein the bank to which they had belonged as service in TheCanadian Bank of Commerce. To provide for this a sum of$75,000 in the former case, and of $40,000 in the latter case,was transferred to the fund, and the annual contribution fromthe bank was increased in 1901 from $10,000 to $15,000 perannum.At the expiration of the first ten years of its history,in May, 1904, the first actuarial examination of the positionof the fund was made. As interest rates were then quitelow, it seemed advisable to consider placing the fund ona four per cent, basis, and the first valuations were madeaccordingly. The result at once disclosed the impossibility ofmaking such a change, as even on a five per cent, basis thefund had been going behind, principally because of the fixedcharacter of the bank's annual contribution, which did notincrease with the growth in the number of members of thefund and in its consequent liabilities. To a certain extent also,insufficient provision had been made for the staff of the Bankof British Columbia and of the Halifax Banking Companyon their admission. The number of contributors had grownfrom 163 at the commencement in1894, to 237 as on May31, 1903, while the contribution from the bank had not beenincreased at all until 1901, and even then to an insufficientextent.Under these circumstances itwas considered advisable,without waiting for the final report of the actuary, to suspendat once the operation of the rule which permitted the return ofone-half an officer's contributions, without interest, on hisleaving the service in good standing. This step was taken onOctober 3, 1904. It was felt that as the fund had beenestablished with a view to benefiting the men who remained inthe bank's service, and as it was unable to do all that was contemplated,those men who left the bank's service voluntarily,usually to better themselves, could not reasonably complain.