Article Text
National bank, of Roanoke, Va., and the Columbia National bank, of Minneoplis, were added to the list today. They are comparatively small institutions, however, and, under ordinary circumstances, their failure, it is said, would attract only passing attention. Mr. Eckles, when asked today by a representative of the Associated Press as to the general banking situation, said: "Of course bank failures are more or less disquieting, but those which have occurred recently have little or no general significence attached to them. They were due largely to local causes, wholly unconnected with the general condition of the bank throughout the country at large. The case of the Atlas bank was not a failure at all, but was a mere voluntary liquidation, every depositor being paid in full. The two failures today are of minor importance, in each case the bank's capital being only $200,000. As against these few failures, based on local causes, the general condition of the banks is excellent. The reports received under the last call, that of December 17, are uniformly favorable and show an average reserve held of considerably above the 25 per cent required by law. One of the last reports, that of the Brooklyn banks, shows the average reserve held to be 34.02 per cent, and most of the reports run 5 or 10 per cent above the legal requirements. In each case, too, the assets in detail make an entirely satisfactory showing, as compared with the liabilities. On the whole, it is evident that the national banks today are as stable as they ever were, and the sporadic failure of a bank here and there through defects peculiar to the failing bank, is of small importance, wholly without general significance. "I am advised from Minneapolis that the failure there has occasioned no disturbance beyond the institution concerned."
