"Window Dressing" in Bank Reports: Hearing...88-1...October 2, 1963

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Page 6 - Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you ran very fast for a long time as we've been doing." "A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!
Page 34 - Institutions and trust companies subject to regulation and examination by the Comptroller of the Currency or the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Page 8 - We will be happy to answer any questions that you or the members of the committee might have about our individual programs.
Page 4 - Report of Condition of XYZ State Bank * * *" published in accordance with call made by whomever it would be; instead, they relax calmly in the shelter of Federal deposit insurance. Those who are interested in the condition of a bank — such as the treasurers of corporations with millions on deposit — are seldom misled by window dressing. They know it exists and make necessary allowances, checking against the surprise reports, and often they can directly ask banks for the information they want....
Page 21 - We recently began a series of meetings with representatives of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to discuss revisions in the call report.
Page 19 - ... purposes, but it is our view that the practice of window dressing has impaired the validity of these figures. Although surprise calls do not provide strict comparability of data, this would be less serious from a statistical viewpoint than the consequences of window dressing.
Page 5 - ... in 1962. Reports of condition were called for as of Friday, December 28, which, for most banks, was just 1 business day before the end of the year. It can be assumed that since banks are accustomed to December 31 calls, the December 28 figures were not appreciably inflated by window dressing. Most banks, particularly large banks, published not only their call reports as of December 28, 1962, as required by law. but also voluntary reports as of December 31, and the latter were in more eye-catching...
Page 4 - ... to which banking data must be related are end-of-month figures, variable bank reporting dates detract considerably from the suitability of banking data for analyses of this character. Even the accuracy of the actual data reported would be better under fixed-date reporting than under surprise calls. Bankers have repeatedly informed us that it is most difficult to reconstruct an accurate report of condition retroactively for items not regularly covered in their daily trial balances. Because of...
Page 1 - DRESSING" IN BANK REPORTS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1963 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, LEGAL AND MONETARY AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS, Washington, DC The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:45 am in room 100-B George Washington Inn, Hon.
Page 4 - Because of these difficulties, manv banks resort to estimating procedures that are often subiect to a troublesome margin of error. With fixed-date reporting at the midvear and yearend, banks could arrange in advance for an accurate tally for each reported item as of the reporting date. Against this background, I return to the fallacy that might be called the surprise call panacea.

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