The hasty survey which has thus been made of foreign systems of banking leads to the conclusion that while there has been no absolutely uniform trend of development in foreign countries, the general movement has been toward the creation of central banks, usually exercising the function of note-issuing and operating more or less as bankers' banks. In most countries such banks are surrounded by a corps of other institutions, which in some cases may be allowed to issue notes, but have ordinarily tended to become deposit banks, either confining themselves to local loans or else engaging in foreign-exchange operations as well. There is a distinct division between the countries of the world as to the scope and extent of branch banking. The tendency in Great Britain, the British colonies, and in various other parts of the world has been toward the establishment of large networks of branches, with a corresponding concentration of banking power in the home offices of the various institutions which maintain such systems. In other parts of the world branch banking has made less progress, and there has been a considerable tendency toward individualization of banking. This would seem to be true in a number of South American states and also in some parts of the Far East. Among the western European countries, France and Italy have seemed inclined to move in the direction of individualization of banking, or, at all events, have not adopted the branch system in the same highly developed degree as has been true of other countries.

Details of banking organization differ quite materially from country to country, but the tendency has been to give to the government either a stockholding interest or else a very distinct power of control or of operation in the central reserve institution of each country, while other banks have for the most part been left in the hands of individuals, the government's control over them being expressed either through general banking laws designed to prescribe operations which may or may not be embarked upon, or in part through more or less frequent examination and inspection of accounts. The United States stands out separately from the rest of the world in having prohibited the branch system within the country, and consequently as having sought the development of a highly individualized system of banking units, which, however, are now united, through the stock ownership of the twelve Federal Reserve banks, into a co-operative system.