ABSTRACT
The National Banking Act of February 25, 1863, required national banks to make quarterly reports to the Comptroller of the Currency, exhibiting their resources and liabilities “in detail and under appropriate heads.” The Comptroller, in turn, was required to make annual reports to Congress, summarizing the reports made to him by the banks. The dates of the quarterly reports were fixed by law, so that there was opportunity for window dressing. But a statute of March 3, 1869, required the banks to make five instead of four reports a year, and the date of each report was to be set by the Comptroller.
