Yes, Aaron, but we must not forget that finance company debentures were highly popular at the time, particularly amongst those who didn't understand or trust the sharemarket - the 1987 crash still loomed large in many memories - and attractive returns were scarce, apart from finance company rates!
I spent a lot of time convincing a close friend who wanted to put his mother-in-laws nestegg into a variety of finance co.'s to instead seek out good quality industrial debentures on the secondary market. These were available from time to time and he bought a few parcels. Unfortunately, he also put some money into South Canterbury Finance...….