A BAPTIST minister has condemned a high street bank for targeting children as potential customers while they were at school.

The Reverend Dr John Elliston was outraged when he discovered children at a Darlington school had been encouraged to open a Halifax bank account during a talk about savings and finance.

Representatives from the bank talked to the 13 and 14-year-olds about the benefits of saving, but during the presentation the youngsters were invited to open an account on the spot with just £1.

Mr Elliston believes those children who did not have any money were told they could borrow £1 from the Halifax staff, which was later removed from their new accounts.

He said: "I have no problem with the Halifax going into schools to talk about the importance of savings, or even handing out leaflets about their services, but getting children to sign up on the spot is wrong. The bank has used an opportunity to educate children for immediate commercial gain, and I think that is immoral.

"I know children of a certain age can walk into any bank and open an account, but they should not be asked to do this in school. Lending some pupils money to make it easier is even worse.

"In a normal situation, a child will have the whole market place to choose from, but the bank has taken advantage of a situation.

"I think many parents will be unaware what their children have done until bank statements start arriving."

Darlington Borough Council said it was up to individual schools to decide who to invite to talk to pupils and there was no blanket policy on companies visiting schools.

A spokesman for the Halifax said the Darlington representatives had not acted in line with the company's policy.

He said: "This is not normal practice. We would not condone our staff to act in this way. In these days we think it is important to introduce young people to financial education and we will go to schools if we are invited.

"However, getting children to open accounts like this is not normal practice and we will be discussing what has happened with the Darlington branch."