| Show BANKERS FIND GROUP BANKING widespread over 13 billion dollars of bank assets in affiliated systems numbering Number InU 1850 members in nearly every state over 1850 banks with moro more than thirteen billion dollars in resources are chown to be associated with ohain or group banking r antema in tho abo united states in facts recently gathered by the economic policy commission ot of the american bankers association cia tion the chairman ot of tho the commission R S hecht ot of now orleans pointed out that tho the facts indicate that th almost avi 7 per cent ot of our banks and over 18 per cent ot of our banking resources are in the groat great net ot of group or chain banking that now covers almost every part ot of the country the commissions facts comprised chain and group banking in the broadest sense of the term the report said they included tuso floso groups in which th the a controlling element was a particular bank there being reported 78 instances of this class involving banks banka and about in combined banking resources they included also groups in which a nox noa banking holding company not subsidiary to any particular bank was in control and ot of this class 28 instances were found involving banks banka and nearly in resources the report also included group groupings ingi in which control was exercised by individual persons parsons and these cases numbered involving 1071 banha and about in assets the total figures the total was waa over in aggregate resources some ot of the systems comprised 60 50 to banks each head offices of the groups were found in all jurisdictions but nine of the states and the district of columbia we have not no included in these figures the report says banking groups in which a commercial bank a trust company and an investment house and sometimes a savings bank are tied together by some form ot of stock holdings and operated as complementary tary elements in an org organization aulza rendering complete financial ices we have held that such groups are similar to a departmentalized ba bank and different in the purposes and operations orations erat ions from a chain or group banking system for purposes ot of the present repart we define chain or group banas as systems in which centralized control whether corporate or personal and either rigid or informal directs diro acts the operations ot of two or more complete banks not functionally complementary co mple men each working on its own capital and under its own personnel and located in one or more cities or states commenting on the question auest lon whether the tha rapid development of 0 chitu chain banking was in the nature of a reaction against restrictions imposed on branch banking by the banking laws in many states the report says saya that observation does not wholly confirm this theory since chain banking la in prevalent in seme states where virtually no restriction Is imposed on branch banking as well wel as in those where the establishment of branch banks Is prohibited it adds the question of branch banking 11 however the facts do show that anti branch banking laws have been a factor in some cases and probably in some sections in the spread ot of chain banking instances have come to our attention where expansion along chain bante bank lines has been carried out by state banks whose expansion along branch b ra bank lines was stopped by bythe the passing of state laws prohibiting fur ther branches yet whether expansion would have been along branch bank lines it the laws had bad imposed no barriers it to is impossible to say there Is obviously a well developed banking opinion in some sections that the chain nank bank method brings to outlying banks the strength aud and efficiency of a big organization without depriving them ot of their local individuality and sympathies in yiew ot of the mixed factors noted we feel it is unsafe to generalize as to what bearing branch banking bankIn 9 aws have on chain chata developments the recant era ot bf rapid chain bank developments has baa found specific reflection in some state legislative action tending to restrict rest riot or control chain or group banking also we find a sharli shar difference of opinion among state bank commissioners who have hais expressed their sentiments regarding chain banking in a foreword fore woid to the report issued in booklet form by the association at its now new york city headquarters chairman hecht sm that tho the economic policy commission does not take a 0 stand in advocacy of or lu in opposition to this now new method ot of concentrating cent rating tanking resources through tho tha affiliation ot of banks into groups and chains but to la simply offering as a 2 tact fact finding body what we believe is the ferst complete national picture ot of this rapidly growing 11 |
