Largest Bank

Hitherto no American bank has been able to boast of resources totalling a billion dollars. Yet it is undoubtedly only a matter of time until some of our larger banking institutions break into the "billion dollar" class. The likeliest candidate at present is America's largest bank, the National City Bank of New York; that it is already within striking distance of the billion dollar figure is shown by its statement at the end of the first quarter of 1924, when its resources had reached $834,121,543.

The City Bank was organized in 1812, and after the passage of the National Banking Act during the Civil War became the "National City." In 1893, at the end of its first quarter, its resources were $25,000,000. Ten years later these had multiplied five times, and by 1913 had reached $250,000,000.

The War greatly increased the volume of the bank's business, although its ambitious experiment of foreign branches proved unprofitable in spots and had to be curtailed. Since 1921 the "City's" progress has been rapid, and even its Cuban and Far Eastern branches have become assets instead of liabilities.

Today the National City is America's largest bank, and predictions have been made that 1924 may see it reach the billion dollar figure in its resources. Yet this growth could be paralled, in proportion, by other large banking institutions of New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and other important American centres.