The department is provided with newspaper clippings affect ing securities of all descriptions; these are read to ascertain if anything of importance is imminent that would directly influence securities lodged with the department, such, for instance, as call ing of bonds, reorganizations, receiverships, issuances of new stock, etc. The department then procures from the proper source circulars descriptive of the proposed plans, informs the clients who have on deposit any of the stocks or bonds affected, and asks for instructions. In the case of called bonds their numbers arc compared with those in the bond number book, and if any of them are held by the department, their collection and credit are cared for at the proper time. Frequently new issues of bonds and stocks are made by corporations and, as a general rule, special inducements are offered to the stockholders as of a cer tain date for subscribing to the new issues; these privileges are called "rights." The department acquaints the interested owners with such proposed action of the corporation and learns whether they wish to subscribe for their proportion of the new issue or to sell their rights. As a rule, these new issues may either be paid in full at the time of the initial subscription, or in instalments on certain set dates running over a period of several months; the department must keep a record of such payments and see that they are made at the proper time.
A great deal of the department's work consists in the pur chase, sale, and transfer of stocks and bonds. It executes buy ing and selling orders for the bank's customers. A complete record of all orders and their execution is kept in an order book, and as each order is executed or canceled the entry is closed out. The bank's brokers furnish to the department, say, once a month, a statement of outstanding orders, and these are checked against this order book.
Many of the securities that go through the transient book or temporary withdrawal book are on their way to or from the transfer agent or registrar, either in the city or outside, as the case may be. The transfer and registration of securities handled for customers occasion several special activities and responsibilities to the department; for instance, the care of income, inheritance, and transfer taxes. All deliveries of se curities in the home city are made by messenger and only under adequate instructions and against receipt or payment. Securi ties transferable in the home city are delivered at the transfer offices, which issue receipts, and the new certificates are called for on the next delivery day; those transferable out of town are forwarded to the bank's correspondents in the localities concerned, and they effect the transfers for the bank.
Relationship to Other Departments The customers' securities department has intimate relations with several other departments of the bank. As customers lodge securities with the department for safe-keeping and later pledge them as collateral for loans, there is a more or less con stant interchange of securities between the customers' securities department and the loan department. It has daily dealings with the bond department, which, as it sells securities lodged with the bank, presents an officially signed order for their release. Moreover, it has close relations with the foreign division, since many of the securities held are for foreign accounts.
The services of this department are generally gratuitous for domestic customers, but most foreign customers pay the bank small commissions. The distinction drawn between the two classes of customers rests upon the practice of foreign banks al most invariably charging the American banks for each and every service.
The Statistical Department The statistical department serves the officers and depart ments of the bank and clients or prospective clients by furnishing all manner of statistical information bearing upon foreign and domestic trade and industry and corporate and public finance.
It is highly important that the officers of a bank act upon in formation that is strictly up to date and accurate. The statisti cal department, therefore, fulfils a very responsible office. The clients of the bank generally have limited facilities for gathering and filing statistical data and come to depend upon their metro politan correspondent; in this way the statistical department contributes to the prestige and good-will of the bank.
The gathering of statistical data requires a constant watch for statistical publications by the federal, state, city, and foreign governments, by commercial, trade, and statistical associations, and by private concerns. It requires the careful reading, clip ping, and filing of newspaper and periodical publications, both domestic and foreign, and demands a wide knowledge of the sources of various kinds of data and their relative validity. The presentation of these data requires an aptitude for figures, tables, charts, and diagrams. The most difficult problem of the statisti cian is the analysis of data, the elimination of untrustworthy data from that which is trustworthy, the weighing of related factors, and the formation of logical conclusions.
Among the output of this department may be mentioned the following: i. All manner of statistical information requested by the officers or others in the bank or by clients or prospective clients.