-----+--------+-------+------------+-----------+-----------+------- | | | | | Bills, | | Cash | Call | | | Advances, | | and | and | | Total of | Premises, | Total Bank.| Bank | Short |Investments.| “Liquid | and |Assets. |Balance.| Money.| | Assets.” | Sundries. | -----+--------+-------+------------+-----------+-----------+------- A | 14·9 | 13·4 | 20·4 | 48·7 | 60 | 109 B | 16·4 | 8·7 | 16·8 | 41·9 | 66 | 108 C | 18·3 | 6·5 | 22·0 | 46·8 | 59 | 106 D | 13·8 | 5·4 | 30·3 | 49·5 | 68 | 117 E | 14·6 | 5·6 | 26·6 | 46·8 | 66 | 113 F | 17·0 | 23·0 | 16·0 | 56·0 | 60 | 116 G | 12·4 | 25·0 | 17·1 | 54·5 | 60 | 114 H | 14·4 | 8·7 | 31·5 | 54·6 | 50 | 105 I | 16·5 | 16·1 | 11·0 | 43·6 | 66 | 110 -----+--------+-------+------------+-----------+-----------+------- The averages of these percentages[2] respectively are as follows:—15·3, 12·6, 21·3, 49·2, 61·6, and 111. [Footnote 2: These averages are not the percentages which would be shown by a _combined_ account of the nine banks.] On examining this table it will be noted that the proportions of funds invested in “liquid assets” do not vary materially with the different banks. When we examine, however, the separate classes of investments making up the total of “liquid assets,” we see that the case is different, and a wide divergence is shown. This is especially so in “call and short money,” where the proportions vary from 5·4 per cent, to 25 per cent, and in “investments,” where they vary from 11 per cent to 31·5 per cent. The figures given are those of one particular day, and that a day on which, according to popular belief, some of the banks indulge in what has been called by the Press “window dressing”—that is, adjusting to a greater or less extent the amounts held in the respective classes of securities, with a view to the presentation of more impressive figures in the balance sheet to be published as at that day. Had we the actual daily records of the various banks at our disposal, it is not improbable that a greater variation would be shown in the items of “cash” and “call money”; but these figures are not available. It is true that most of the banks now publish monthly statements as to their position, and it is a noticeable fact that while some banks issue these monthly statements as on the close of business of the last day of each month, others vary the day on which the statements are made up; and it is open to conjecture that this variation of date is with the object of making a better showing.