Bank credit

“ Those notes of B's amounting to $100,000 are a bank Credit Currency. They are issued against, or upon B's credit. They pass from person to person, from hand to hand and are currently redeemed every day. While the deposits at A's bank amounting to $100,000 are against A's credit, and the checks against them are redeemed every day. It is perfectly evident that if the capital of A and B combined is ample to meet the business requirements of that town, the form of credit offered by [Pg 65] them will also adapt itself to the peculiar needs of each citizen. ”

“ DANGERS OF BANK CREDIT.—The integrity of these various operations rests upon the confidence which people have in the bank's ability to make good its promises. Confidence in the deposit credit of a bank exists when the past experience of depositors has taught them that the bank in question will habitually exchange either coin or bank notes for checks. Bank notes are ordinarily accepted in the place of coin, because people believe the credit of the bank issuing those notes to be so firmly established that the bank would be able and willing to exchange coin for its notes, upon demand. ”

“ It has been argued that the volume of credits granted by the banks depends upon business activity and upon the consequent demand for credit and not upon the power of the banks to grant credits, and, therefore, that low interest rates have little effect in causing an expansion of bank credits. ”

“ Merchant: Now, gentlemen, why all this frightful agony, this terrific straining, this ever-recurring tragedy and universal ruin, simply because we persist in being utterly ignorant of the simplest economic truths which our own actions on every such occasion have demonstrated—that there is absolutely no difference between a bank book credit and a bank note credit, except that the people want something that passes current in greatly increased quantities, when loaning stops or credit is checked. ”

“ Again, the terms offered by the bankrupts to their correspondents seem to us to promise the appropriation of a specified fund to the draft as little as they promise to apply the money received by them to that end. They are to provide the drawee banks with sufficient funds for the payment of the drafts by transfer of credit from our balance 'or otherwise.' They are to provide, that is, as convenient to themselves, for payment by the drawee banks, not to give them an earmarked corpus to be handed over. ”

“ The bank or banks which hold the reserve may last a little longer than the others; but if apprehension pass a certain bound, they must perish too. The use of credit is, that it enables debtors to use a certain part of the money their creditors have lent them. If all those creditors demand all that money at once, they cannot have it, for that which their debtors have used, is for the time employed, and not to be obtained. With the advantages of credit we must take the disadvantages, too ”

“ Of course, only those banks can furnish such credits which possess a surplus of credit more than they can sell in the ordinary way, and these credits are safe and useful only in small communities, in which men are well known to each other. Some friends of the parties thus accommodated always guarantee the bank against loss; but the losses have proved to be insignificant, the gains to be marvellous; and this form of credit issued on the basis of no previous transaction in the way of deposits illustrates better than any other the radical principle, that Credit is Capital. ”

“ In all these ways the banking power of a country is extended to several times the coin money in circulation, and that with perfect safety. But it is possible for banks to be tempted through the very perfection of their own credit. The note of an individual has no established market value. A deposit in the bank is valued as cash. It is possible to secure the credit of having a bank deposit by discounting an individual note. ”

“ No bank shall grant credit to a person if as a result thereof:
a. the aggregate outstanding principal amount of all of the bank’s credits to that
person would exceed the equivalent of fifteen percent, or such lower percentage as
specified by regulations issued by the CBI, of the bank’s unimpaired capital and
reserves (large credit exposure) , without obtaining prior approval of the CBI ”

“ If, however, his [76] business be in a healthy condition the corner will soon be turned; and as his payments in begin to exceed the cheques he draws, his indebtedness to the bank speedily sinks below the average. Each payment to his credit reduces his debit balance, and every cheque debited, of course, increases it, but as the banker charges him a rate upon the sum owing at the end of each day, it follows that the customer only pays interest upon the actual money he has borrowed—not upon the amount of the “limit” as does the London client upon the amount of his “loan.” ”

“ In the ultimate analysis, and outside of its function of insuring credit, a bank is really an intermediary between borrowers and lenders. It is by virtue of bringing borrowers and ultimate lenders together and providing the former with a supply of loans which would not otherwise exist, that a bank simultaneously tends to lower the rate of interest and increase the supply of credit currency. ”

“ In fact, every banking association is assumed to be a corporation of money lenders. Under ordinary circumstances this corporation is able to loan to individuals whose credit is good all of its capital not otherwise employed in the machinery of the bank, a considerable portion of deposits from its customers, and to a certain extent its own credit in the commercial world. In the case of a national bank a portion of capital is loaned to the government in the purchase of bonds, which are the basis of its circulating notes. ”

“ As a result of interchangeability of book and note credits, a bank could always protect its coin reserve, for if the customer was just as well satisfied to take the bank's notes, instead of coin, or its reserves, it must be apparent to all of you that the cost to the bank would only be from one-sixth to one-fourth as great, and that the bank would have several times as much credit to loan, and at the same time be in a much stronger position. ”

“ They also greatly economize in the use of money by saving cost of counting and of transfer, and by securing against losses. If the system offered no more advantages than this safe and ready use of good money, the banks would be practically indispensable. But they have a still greater use in a safe extension of credit. The perfection of system in banking makes it possible for one who habitually fulfils his promises to purchase anywhere in the world on the shortest notice with the simple guaranty of credit in the bank where he does business. ”

“ An inquiry into the transactions of the institution, embracing the branches as well as the principal Bank, seems called for by the credit which is given throughout the country to many serious charges impeaching its character, and which, if true, may justly excite the apprehension that it is no longer a safe depository of the money of the people. ”

“ Each Federal reserve bank shall keep itself informed of the general character and amount of the loans and investments of its member banks with a view to ascertaining whether undue use is being made of bank credit for any purpose inconsistent with sound credit conditions, and shall give consideration to such information in determining whether to make advances to such member banks. ”

“ They have ultimately to pay for no more credit than they actually use, because the drawer will pay back to the payee, in case he has bought and paid for the entire credit drawn, the cash difference; while on the other hand, arrangements can always be made beforehand, by which money need not be deposited with the banker at home any faster than it is actually called for abroad; and while also a good customer of the bank drawing the credit, one who keeps ordinarily a good line of deposits, may pay for whatever credit he has used when he returns from his trip. ”

“ Not much competition for Federal Reserve bankers there, is there? Peg that proposition and look at the next one.
Here it is. The loans of a bank are the life of a bank. From the interest upon them comes practically the sole earnings of a bank and upon their repayment depends the solvency of a bank. The credit department of a bank is its solar plexus. Loans must be successfully made to men engaged in every variety of industry, some secured, some unsecured and in amounts varying from a few hundreds of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. ”

“ Seasoned bonds have been bought in great volume by our commercial banks, but few stocks. Even the underwriters and investment bankers have been primarily intermediaries, expecting to pass on to private buyers the securities they hold temporarily. My point here is, merely, that there is nothing in the distinction between static and dynamic credit, when by that is meant the distinction between credit for new enterprises and credit for old enterprises, to mark off a peculiar or essential province for bank-credit. ”

“ The fortunes of the group of individuals representing the bank is less doubtful than that of any one person. The borrower in this instance pays in the discount of his note the difference in risk between his fortune and that of the combination. Such deposits purchased upon credit must be distinguished from deposits of cash, lest the bank should nominally increase its power to lend while in fact it has already lent up to its ability. Sometimes such nominal deposits are maintained by persons deeply in debt for the sake of paying a larger rate of interest than is allowed by law. ”

“ There is a form of credit transactions (4) by checks on bankers, and transfers in a banker's books, which is exactly parallel in every respect to bank-notes, giving equal facilities to an extension of credit, and capable of acting on prices quite as powerfully. A bank, instead of lending its notes to a merchant or dealer, might open an account with him, and credit the account with the sum it had agreed to advance, on an understanding that he should not draw out that sum in any other mode than by drawing checks against it in favor of those to whom he had occasion to make payments. ”

“ If the cheque is paid into a different bank, it will not be presented for payment, but liquidated by set-off against other cheques; and in a state of circumstances favourable to a general extension of banking credits, a banker who has granted more credit, and has therefore more cheques drawn on him, will also have more cheques on other bankers paid to him, and will only have to provide notes or cash for the payment of balances; for which purpose the ordinary reserve of prudent bankers, one-third of their liabilities, will abundantly suffice. ”

“ With a given amount of money a certain proportion of it can be used for bank reserves on which to build credit transactions. For a time the volume of business will increase more rapidly than the money supplies, so that the proportion of credit business to the whole will increase, the improvement of the credit machinery in the meantime facilitating the movement. But the perfection of the facilities for utilizing to the utmost a given reserve, or a slowly increasing one, will come to a stop after a time, and it will be necessary to increase the money supply for any further expansion of credit. ”

“ The credit given to any one by those with whom he deals, does not depend on the quantity of bank notes or coin in circulation at the time, but on their opinion of his solvency: if any consideration of a more general character enters into their calculation, it is only in a time of pressure on the loan market, when they are not certain of being themselves able to obtain the credit on which they have been accustomed to rely ”

“ On the contrary, it is in all probability more inimical. For example, banks compete to fill the credit needs of businessmen. Small businessman especially are, as a practical matter, confined to their locality for the satisfaction of their credit needs. ”

“ Loans or extensions of credit to or secured by unconditional takeout commitments or guarantees of any department, agency, bureau, board, commission, or establishment of the United States or any corporation wholly owned directly or indirectly by the United States shall not be subject to any limitation based on capital and surplus. (6) Loans or extensions of credit secured by a segregated deposit account in the lending bank shall not be subject to any limitation based on capital and surplus. ”

“ It is at bottom a mutual buying and selling of debts. There is of course a daily balance on one side or the other between every two of these banks, which must be settled in money, because it would never happen in practice that each should owe the other precisely the same sum on any one day; but substantially and almost exclusively the exchange at the Clearing-House is a simple trade in credit-claims. Each bank pays its debts by credits. A merchant is a dealer in commodities, a laborer is a dealer in services, and a banker is a dealer in credits. ”

“ Any person who applies to a bank for a cash-credit is called upon to produce two or more competent securities, who are jointly bound, and after a full enquiry into the character of the applicant, the nature of his business, and the sufficiency of his securities, he is allowed to open a credit, and to draw upon the bank for the whole of its amount, or for such part as his daily transactions may require. ”

“ When in a given period, say a day or a week, the receipts of the customers of a bank from outsiders, as a result of current or past sales and gifts, exceed the payments made by them as a result of purchases and gifts, its credit balances with its correspondents will increase, and under opposite conditions they will decrease. ”