Striking The Balances

To resume the description of the clearings. After all the sheets are balanced and the difference or balance which each bank has to pay, or receive, is arrived at, the sheets and slips are handed to the clearing house manager and balanced. The total of the debit balances should balance with the total of the credit balances. Everything being found correct, the manager signs a slip for each bank, stating the amount of the debit or credit balance it has to pay, or receive, and the clearing is completed.

Checking The Parcels

The messengers and clerks from each bank have hurried home in the meantime with the parcels they have received, and the sheets that contain the records follow when the balances and settlements are found at the clearing house. The parcels are given to the tellers, and the contents of each parcel are carefully examined to see that the amount claimed to be there is actually there. There will be in each a list of cheques and bordereaux, with specification of cash. The cash is counted, and the cheques ticked off on the list. The ledger-keepers examine the cheques to see that the signatures are authentic, the endorsements in order, and that funds are held for them. If any item is missing, if there are any cheques in the lot for which there are not sufficient funds, or if there is a shortage in the cash of any parcel, demand is made direct upon the bank that sent the parcel, and it has to send over cash to rectify the mistake. If it does not do so, the bank can, if it chooses, stop the settlement of balances at the clearing bank until its claim is satisfied.

Paying And Receiving Balances

At a certain fixed time, usually from twelve o'clock to half-past twelve, the debtor banks must pay in their balances at the clearing bank. Then from halfpast twelve till one, provided the clearings have not been stopped, and provided all the debtor banks have duly settled their balances, the creditor banks appear and draw what is coming to them.

It will be remembered that the panic in New York was precipitated by the fact becoming known one day that the Mercantile National Bank of New York needed assistance in meeting its balance at the clearing house in that city. As failure to meet a balance promptly would be tantamount to a confession of inability to meet obligations, all the banks are most particular to be prompt in their payments. The operation of meeting these balances furnishes a daily test of the solvency and preparedness of every bank in Canada. In the event of any bank becoming straitened for cash, probably the first indications would be seen at the clearing house.

City Tellers' Additional Duties

Tellers in the city offices have some duties which do not fall to tellers in country places. One of them is to fill requisitions from the branches for the bank's own notes. In a bank which has numerous branches a considerable number of parcels will have to be sent out daily. This department is especially busy when the crops are being financed and the "circulation" moving rapidly out.