Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-06-24
"a Al InA DIALIU.,s.
The Sew York CIearing-Heusea AID It's
Operations.
New York Tribune.

Operations
New York Tribune
Few persons have an adequate con.
ceotion of the enormous business trans
acted through the Clearinghouse, or
of the details of the work. In the
course of a Gays business the banks Of
the city are necessarily the debtors or
creditors CT many of the other banks,
and as they are widely separated, the
utility Of a central Clearinghouse is
apparent. About 10 A. NJ, the army
of bank messengers begin to arrive at
the Clearing house, each one carrying
a small sachel In which are the checks
to pay and the drafts to be paid.
Having taken their places in front of
the desks, which extend the length of
the room, and are numbered to repre-
sent the different banks-the number
being IN accordance with the date Of
the organization of the bank-No !
represents the Bank Of New York,
which with one exception-the Bank of
North America of Philadelphia-is the
Oldest bank in the United States. Be
hind each desk sits clerk from the
bank so numbered with a large sheet,
on which is the name of each bank, ar
ranged In the order of its number, and
the amounts which his messenger has
against it.
Each messenger takes his place op-
posite the desk assigned to his bank,
with his envelopes containing the drafts
and checks on the different banks, and
a slip containing the list of the con-
tents of the respective envelopes. At
a signal from Mr. Camp, the messenger
moves forward to the desk next his
own, and delivers to the clerk stationed
there the envelopes containing the
drafts and checks for the bank repre-
scented by that desk. The clerk takes
the envelope, signs the slip and hands
1t back to the messenger, who moves TO
the next desk, and so on until he gets
back where hestarted, having delivered
all the drafts and checks on the banks
with which he had differences and for
which he holds the receipted slips. In
ten minutes the exchanges are delivered,
which under the old system would have
taken as many hours. In addition to
the great saving of time and labor, the
banks have the advantage of learning
at once how they stand, as the clerks
immediately make up their accounts,
and the difference between the amount
they have received and the amount
brought to the clearinghouse by their
respective messengers is the amount
due to or from the clearing
rtbig ..ooo,ryk sbook =. H., bo-1oJ %
the messenger, who returns to the
bank, and the officials can see at once
their condition and settle accordingly.
The clerks reported on their arrival the
amounts they severally brought. They
now report to the official designated by
the clearing house to receive it the
amounts they have received in eek
changes" These amounts having been
placed In separate columns, the official
looks them over, and if they balance no
errors have occurred and the clearance
is pronounced correct and the clerks
are at liberty to return to their respec-
tive banks. If the TWO columns do not
balance, the clerks are kept and the
accounts gone over till the error is dis.
covered.
The Clearing house Association con-
sists of fifty nine members, represent. |
ing seventy banks. There are fifteen |
banks in the city not members of the |
Association, their combined capital |
being S3,500,000. The total capital of |
the Association banks is SSl ,666, 100.
The total transactions of the clearing
house since its organization in 1853 |
have reached the enormous amount of |
S4I1, 730, 4S4, $40.
The account sheets of ffty-nine banks |
have to be gone over. The clerks are
allowed only thirty-fve minutes after
the delivery of the exchanges to prove |
and report their transactions. Each |
bank in settling-which they are re-
Iuired to do by $50 P. NJ. each day
pays what it owes in sealed packages,
$1,000, $4,000 and $4,000 |
each. These packages are numbered |
and registered, and a careful record |
Kept, to whom paid and from whom
so that in The event Of an er-
rOr or short count the package can be
speedily traced. The whole system of
the ''clearances" is simple, and the
whole days transactions for any day
in the year can be seen at a glance. |
One important feature of the Clearing
house not heretofore mentioned is the /
Bank Statement" which is compi-
alton of the daily transactions Of each
bank, and is published every Saturday
about P. NJ.