THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN BANK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 225, 11 June 1918, Page 6

THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN BANK

$ LIGHT ON ITS ACTIVITIES. 11l the February issue of the "Czech Review" of Prague, K. Karasek throws interesting light upon the activities of the Austro-Hungarian State Bank during I the war. In the introduction he says that "6ince the beginning of the war Austria had not been allowed to write about the exchange, bullion and money value, except in the case of war loans, Only to-day, after three and a half years of war, the curtain has been lifted and the secrets are revealed, thanks to tils' uressiirc of Parliament." He reveals that by the Imperial Decree of August 4, 1914. several articles of the statutes of the bank were either altered or abolished. The worst was the prohibition to reveal the statement of the bank's affairs in public, including the suspension of weekly bulletins and the holding of scneral meetings, In the bank report, which has only just been published, the circulation of bank notes and the stock of bills of exchange was as follows (in millions of kronen) :— 191}. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. Oirculatior«of bank nolcs... 2.494 5.1J7 7.162 10,889 18,439 Stock of B/E m 826 177 57 22 Besides this, lombard loans against securities amounted at tl|e end of 1917 to 822 million, so that the total of private loans amounts to G44 million. The State loan to both Governments amounted at the end of the year to 19.3 milliards. This menus Hint the amount of private loans has fallen to 3 per cent, of the State loans. This is the most unfavourable relation of all State banks, i and it cannot be excused by the. needs of | private credits or by the'regulation of money circulation. No wonder that the confidence of tho Austrian public in the stability of the State finance, has been shaken, the more so sinco the stock of gold in the Austro-ITungarian Bank has been reduced from 1241 million kronen before the war to 2fio million to-day.