Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1935-06-20
TRENDS. FAVORABLE
IN STATE BANKING
Recent Figures Indicate Large
Increases in Deposits and
Invested Funds

improvement IN the cOnulClOn OF STATE
banks in almost every respect during
1884 is shown by statistics recently as
sembled, Robert M Hanes, President
Wachovie Bank and Trust Company.
Winston-Salem. North Carolina. points
out in an article in Banking" pub
lished by the American Bankers Asso-
citation. The figures on which this state
ment 10 based were gathered by the
Committee on State Bank Research of
the association from reports furnished
By state bank supervisors throughout
the country.
Ever since 1921 the number of state
banks has been declining" Mr.. Hanes
says. Between 1881 and 1884 the de-
cline was rapid. Figures for December
81. 1884, showed that the downward
trend has not yet ended, but the de-
cline last year was the smallest in
twelve years."
There are now, he says, about ten
thousand state banks, which term in
cludes all state chartered institutions
with the exception of mutual savings
banks. The article continues:
Even more significant was the end
Ing of the decline of deposits in state
banks which had been going on since
the collapse of the stock market boom
in 1929. In recent years for which fig
ures are available the drop has been
particularly abrupt. Total deposits in
state banks declined from $20,395, 1872.
600 on December 81. 1881. to $15,424,.
$4,000 on December 81. 1888. The rec
ord for 1884 shows recovery to $17.-
508,766,000 at the year-end.
Significance of Increased Deposits
1T is particularly gratifying to note
the expansion of deposits, since 1t was
their decline which made necessary the
liquidation of investments, the calling
Of loans. and all the other phenomena
which go under the name of 'deflation'
and have brought banks so much criti-
cfsm in recent years. It is now plain
that this was due to efforts of the
banks to place themselves in the pos
session Of enough liquid assets to meet
the growing demands of depositors for
the return Of part of the money which
had been placed on deposit.
THAT this is true is borne out by the
movement of invested funds of state
banks, which has paralleled that of de-
posits. These invested funds Qoans and
discounts plus investments) for state
banks, dropped from $40, 800 900, at
the end of 1881, to $14,915, $4,000 at the
end of 1888. By December 81. 1884, how
ever, they had recovered to SIS, 769,510,
900. All of this gain is accounted for
by the increase In investments during
1884. the expansion amounting to ap-
proximately ,300,OO0,O0O.
"As for loans and discounts, they reg
istered slight drop again in 1884, but
the rate Of decline was much smaller
than in previous years, which in itself
Is progress. Whereas the drop in loans
and discounts amounted to approx
mately $3,300,0OO,oOO in 1882, and to ap-
proximately $1,3OOOOO,OOo in 1893, it
was less than 100000, 900 in 1884.
I'm another respect the balance sheet
figures for December 81, 1894, were es-
pecially impressive. Bills payable and
rediscounts Of the state banks, which
at the end of 1882 had reached q de-
preston high of $3.50, 100000. had
dropped by the close of last year to the
low figure of $82.1O1,0O0. One must
search the records as far back as 1917
to find bills payable and rediscounts Of
state banks at lower figure. More
over, it is reasonable to expect further
reduction Of such borrowings during
the current year."