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REPORT ON STATE BANKS IS MADE BY THE BANK DEPARTMENT OF THE AUDITOR'S OFFICE. It Shows the Number of State Banks Organized During the Year, the Number of Failures-Two Trust Companies, Both of This City, Have Been Incorporated. The annual report of the bank department of the state auditor's office has been printed. It is for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 1893, and shows that during the year the following state banks have been incorporated, making a total of eighty-seven in the state: Monroe county state bank of Bloomington, Citizens' bank of Clinton, Garrett banking company of Garrett, State bank of Indiana at Indianapolis, Citizens' state bank of Knox, Logansport state bank, State bank of Lowell, Union loan and trust company of Richmond, Parke bank of Rockville, State bank of Veedersburg, Williamsport *state bank of Williamsport. The financial panic of last spring compelled the following banks to close their doors and their affairs are being wound up: State bank of Churubusco, Clay county bank of Clay City, Farmers' and Merchants' bank of Covington, Farmers' and Merchants' bank of Fairmount, Farmers' and Merchants' bank of Geneva, Farmers' bank of Otterbein, Commercial bank of Oxford, Bank of Russiaville, Bank of Spiceland. The Delaware county bank at Muncie reorganized as a national bank and the Citizens' bank at Knox sold its business to a private bank. These changes have left eighty-seven banks operating under state law at the date of this report. These failures are the first that have occurred since the enactment of the present state bank law in 1873, and were largely owing to alliances with financial schemes, the practicability of which were always doubted by this department, and which has made all the effort that it could to prevent them. The law, however, does not give the auditor of state sufficient authority to stop practices by banks which seem to him unsafe. The failure of these banks. with two or three exceptions, will not cause loss to depositors. The report shows that the savings banks, of which there were five at the close of the year, are in a. perfectly solvent condition, but suffered, like all other banks. in the withdrawal of deposits during the spring and summer. Whenever necessary, the provisions of the law under which they are operating and their by-laws, requiring notice of withdrawals, were taken advantage of, thus preventing a sacrifice of their securities. Two trust companies have been organized under the law passed by the last general assembly providing for their incorporation. They are the Indiana trust company and the Union trust company, both of Indianapolis. Statements of their condition are submitted. showing their exact assets and liabilities at the close of the fiscal year.
