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December 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
3:42:00 PM EST
Feeling Worried
The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the U.S. inspired this posting.
In December 1863, Hugh McCulloch, then Comptroller of the Currency of the United States and later Secretary of the Treasury, addressed a letter to all national banks. Here are some of the paragraphs.
“Let no loans be made that are not secured beyond a reasonable contingency. Do nothing to foster and encourage speculation. Give facilities only to legitimate and prudent transactions. Never renew a note or bill merely because you may not know where to place the money with equal advantage if the paper is paid.
“Distribute your loans rather than concentrate them in a few hands. Large loans to a single individual or firm, although sometimes proper and necessary, are generally injudicious, and frequently unsafe. Large borrowers are apt to control the bank; and when this is the relation between a bank and its customers, it is not difficult to decide which in the end will suffer.
“If you doubt the propriety of discounting an offering, give the bank the benefit of the doubt and decline it; never make a discount if you doubt the propriety of doing so. If you have reasons to distrust the integrity of a customer, close his account. Never deal with a rascal under the impression that you can prevent him from cheating you. The risk in such cases is greater than the profit.
“Pay your officers such salaries as will enable them to live comfortably and respectably without stealing; and require of them their entire services. If an officer lives beyond his income, dismiss him; even if his excess of expenditures can be explained consistently with his integrity, still dismiss him. Extravagance, if not a crime, very naturally leads to crime. A man cannot be a safe officer of a bank who spends more than he earns.
“The capital of a bank should be reality, not a fiction; and it should be owned by those who have money to lend, and not by borrowers.
“Pursue a straightforward, upright, legitimate banking business. ‘Splendid financing’ is not legitimate banking, and ‘splendid financiers’ in banking are generally either humbugs or rascals.”
The sub-prime mortgage fiasco in the United States should serve as a reminder, yet again, that gamblers must not be allowed to manage society’s saving. Central banks need to institute qualifying psychological testing to bar bank leaders with gambling propensity from wheeling and dealing in customers’ deposits and shareholders equity.
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3:42:00 PM EST
Feeling Worried
Credit 101 to bankers
The sub-prime mortgage debacle in the U.S. inspired this posting.
In December 1863, Hugh McCulloch, then Comptroller of the Currency of the United States and later Secretary of the Treasury, addressed a letter to all national banks. Here are some of the paragraphs.
“Let no loans be made that are not secured beyond a reasonable contingency. Do nothing to foster and encourage speculation. Give facilities only to legitimate and prudent transactions. Never renew a note or bill merely because you may not know where to place the money with equal advantage if the paper is paid.
“Distribute your loans rather than concentrate them in a few hands. Large loans to a single individual or firm, although sometimes proper and necessary, are generally injudicious, and frequently unsafe. Large borrowers are apt to control the bank; and when this is the relation between a bank and its customers, it is not difficult to decide which in the end will suffer.
“If you doubt the propriety of discounting an offering, give the bank the benefit of the doubt and decline it; never make a discount if you doubt the propriety of doing so. If you have reasons to distrust the integrity of a customer, close his account. Never deal with a rascal under the impression that you can prevent him from cheating you. The risk in such cases is greater than the profit.
“Pay your officers such salaries as will enable them to live comfortably and respectably without stealing; and require of them their entire services. If an officer lives beyond his income, dismiss him; even if his excess of expenditures can be explained consistently with his integrity, still dismiss him. Extravagance, if not a crime, very naturally leads to crime. A man cannot be a safe officer of a bank who spends more than he earns.
“The capital of a bank should be reality, not a fiction; and it should be owned by those who have money to lend, and not by borrowers.
“Pursue a straightforward, upright, legitimate banking business. ‘Splendid financing’ is not legitimate banking, and ‘splendid financiers’ in banking are generally either humbugs or rascals.”
The sub-prime mortgage fiasco in the United States should serve as a reminder, yet again, that gamblers must not be allowed to manage society’s saving. Central banks need to institute qualifying psychological testing to bar bank leaders with gambling propensity from wheeling and dealing in customers’ deposits and shareholders equity.
Written by eeh100 Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
