9. Statements and Reports. The auditing department checks before remission the statements made to the Comptroller of the Currency at his "calls" and also the earnings reports, and the income tax statements sent to the Collector of Internal Revenue. The purchase and sales of the bond department are also checked. Another duty of the auditor is to acknowledge the service of legal papers, such as attachments, court orders, etc.
io. Cash Letters. With all cash letters that are charged against the reserve account or collection transfer account of a correspondent, the bank encloses a card form of acknowledg ment. A record of these remittances is kept, and when the acknowledgments are returned they are checked to this record. If, however, the card is not received within a reasonable time, the letter is traced. It frequently happens that cash letters are lost in transit. From the carbon copy of the lost letter the name of the last indorser is learned, and he is notified that the letter has been lost in transit and is requested to procure duplicate checks, which are to be handled as new business, and the amount of each item enclosed in the lost letter is charged at once to the respective indorsers.
With cash letters that are charged against a collection ac count, an advice of receipt by the correspondent is not required, for these accounts are closely watched to see that in due course there is received a check in payment or else instructions to debit the reserve account.
r. Exchange Charges. By some correspondents against whose reserve account the bank debits the cash letters re mitted, a monthly exchange statement is rendered. Before crediting their account with the amount charged for exchange, the statement is verified against the bank's record of the matter. Some depositors instruct the bank not to debit their account for exchange but in lieu thereof to render them a bill daily, weekly, or monthly for the amount of these charges, when they settle by check. A record is kept of all statements so rendered, and at certain intervals this record is examined and endeavor is made to collect all amounts which have been outstanding for any length of time. The remittance received in payment of items carried in collection accounts is for the proceeds after the col lection charges have been deducted. The letters accompanying these payments are examined daily and the amount of ex change deducted is proved with the mail teller's daily charge ticket debiting Exchange account.
12. Doubtful Transactions. When there is doubt as to how a transaction will be routed through the bank, directions cover ing it are delivered to the auditing department. Copies of the instructions are then made and delivered to the various depart ments which are likely to come in contact with the transaction. All letters and telegrams which contain no direct evidence as to what particular transaction is involved are turned over to the auditing department for investigation, and the correspondence is then delivered only to the department which has authority to handle it. Copies are made of all letters and telegrams received containing notice of the closing of a bank; these copies arc dis tributed throughout the bank, with instructions that any trans action pending with the closed bank is to be referred to official attention.
13. Records on File. Certain daily records of various depart ments, such as the receiving teller's deposit tickets, all cash and collection letters received, carbon copies of the bank's remit tance letters, coupon advices, the note and mail teller's journal tickets, are sent to the auditing department, where they are filed numerically according to date. These records prove of great ser vice in answering without delay the many inquiries relative to these branches of the work. The documents in the auditor's files cannot be taken from the department without the advice and consent of the auditor, and must not be altered or lost. The auditor acts as custodian of the past records of the bank. Under the National Bank Act the bank is not compelled to keep records which are more than six years old, and it is one of the duties of the auditor to see that these old records are destroyed when the time limit expires.
Reconcilement and Investigation of Foreign " Our" Accounts The term "our" account is used to designate the accounts which one bank (for the sake of clearness to be here designated "this" bank) has in other banks, to distinguish them from ac counts which other banks carry with this bank; the latter are called "their" accounts. The work of this subdivision is sepa rable into two general groups which might be handled, if the volume of work warranted, by distinct subdivisions: first, the analysis and reconcilement of the foreign bank's statement, and second, the investigation and handling of certain letters of ad vice and inquiries arising out of transactions passed over "our" accounts.