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AN IMPORTANT CHANGE Is Announced Farmers & Merchants State Bank Decides to Liquidate OUR BANK has decided to pay off all depositors and retire from business as soon as this can be done properly. There are a number of reasons for this and we want to explain them fully to all who are interested in our institution. A community can have too many banks, just as it can have too many shoe stores or too many restaurants. It costs money to run a bank. Under present conditions it is more difficult for banks to earn profits unless they have large business. This community may support two banks—but to divide the banking business here among three, none of us can enjoy good success. It will be better for the whole community to make this change. We want to close up our business affairs in such a way that all of our patrons will enjoy the best possible results. We fully expect to pay every depositor 100 cents for every dollar they now have on deposit with us. This cannot all be repaid at once—promptly. Part of your deposits have been invested or loaned. It will take time to turn all our assets into cash for you. Our problem has been to work out plans to hold down expenses as the bank settles up this business. To allow our bank to fall into the hands of a "Receiver" would mean much more expense. It would cause hardships to many of our borrowers. It would not prove so good for the community in any way. So we have decided to go into "Voluntary Liquidation." This plan will allow the officers of our bank to do this work. We can work with our friends who have funds borrowed here and help them clean up these debts as soon as they can without serious harm to other business plans. We know our people and we know values of property owned by our bank. We will be able to find buyers who can afford to pay right prices for these things. A stranger coming as Receiver would cost more and obtain less money for our depositors. Since our bank went under certain "restrictions" last August, we have received money on deposit, but this money has been held as "Trust Deposits" by us—none of it has been loaned or invested. Every dollar of these new deposits, made since we began working under restrictions, is here now, ready to be returned in full to the people who deposited it with us. People who have Savings Accounts here, or who own Certificates of Deposit, will get interest on their money up to today. We are not allowed to pay any interest on deposits during the time we will be liquidating, however. All deposits made before last August are still under certain reservations. Part of this money has been invested, part has been loaned and