Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1900 — WANTS BANKS SAFE. [ARTICLE]

WANTS BANKS SAFE.

Comptroller Dawee Buggeita Reforms in Hanaglng Them. The annual report of Charles G. Dawes, Comptroller of the Currency, for the year ended Oct. 31, 1900, starts with a summary of the reports made during the year by national banks in response to the call of the Comptroller, which shows the aggregate resources of' the 3,871 national banks reporting on Sept. 5, 1900, to be $5,040,138,499.29. Between the September call of 1899 and 1900 loans and discounts increased $170,008,391.40. The loans and discounts on Sept. 5, 1900, were $2,080,7551,042.57, and individual deposits were $2,508,248,557.53. The capital stock of national bunks reporting on Sept. 5 was $030,209,030. Between March 14 aud Oct. 31, 1900, 348 banks were organized, 239 being of less than $50,000 capital. The report says: “The total increase in the circulation secured by government bonds of all national banks in the system since March 14, 1900, has been $82,454,270. The total outstanding circulation on Oct. 31, 1900, was $331,613,268, of which $32,784,204 is secured by lawful money and is in pro* cess of retirement. The total bond-se-cured circulation on Oct. 31, 1900, was $298,829,064. On Oct. 31, 1900, there were 3,935 national banks in operation, with a combined capital of $032,502,395. The combined resources of the national banks, being over $5,000,900,000, is greater than at any time heretofore.” The most important recommendation made by the Comptroller, and that which is the chief feature of the report, is one for additional restrictions upon loans to directors and executive officers of banks. The Comptroller states thut the large percentage of bank failures attributable to excessive loans to directors aud officers, which amount to 62 failures, or 17 per cent of the total failures of national bunks, led him to a careful investigation as to all directors’ loans now outstanding in the national banks of the country. Tlie investigation showed that on June 29, 1906, the date of the Comptroller’s call for a statement of condition from the national banks, that of 28,709 directors of national banks in the country, 18,* 534 were directly or indirectly indebted to national banks under their management, the aggregate of these sums being $202,287,441. The Comptroller urges the passage of the Brisius law to regulate these conditions. This bill provides that no national bank shall loan to its officers or employes until the proposition shall have been submitted in writing to the directors or executive committee and approved by a majority of the members. In dealing with the subject of loans the Comptroller says the present need is a provision which will enable large banks to haul mure nearly the same per cent es their total assets which the present provision allows to smaller banks. The Comptroller suggests the following change in the law: “That the restriction of this section as to the amount of total liabilities to any association of any person, or of any company, corporation, or firm, for money borrowed shall not apply where a loan in excess of one-tenth part of the capital stock shall be less than 2 per cent of the total assets of said bank at the time of making said loan.”