Higher & Higher

Every six months the Comptroller of the Currency, Preston Delano, "a very distant cousin" of the President, dutifully reports the vital statistics on the nation's banks. For the last three years, the assembled figures have grown larger & larger. Last week's report was no exception. Assets of the 14,598 U.S. commercial and savings banks, reported Comptroller Delano, totaled a record-breaking $139.5 billion as of June 30, 1944, a twelve-month gain of $22.3 billion.

Heavy absorption of Government bonds is bulging the U.S. bank assets. As of June 30, 1940, the country's commercial and savings banks held only $19.6 billion of Governments. In four years they have swelled their holdings by $56.5 billion, thus pushing deposits up from $70.7 billion to their current alltime peak of $129.3 billion, carrying bank assets along.

Comptroller Delano also reported that national banks earned $207.7 million in the first six months of 1944, a sum equivalent to an annual rate of 10.1% on capital funds. But dividends paid were at the annual rate of only 3.3%. Thus the banks substantially increased their capital, not so fast, however, as Government spending continued to increase their deposits.

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