INSTITUTE OF CREDIT AND NATIONAL BANK OF RURAL FUNDS 13 



§ 3. The NATIONAL BANK OF ITALIAN RURAL FUNDS. 



This bank was founded in the form of a co-operative limited liability 

 societ3^its principal aim being " to furnish aid to the rural funds and other 

 co-operative societies which have the diffusion of credit among small agri- 

 culturists as their object " (i). The bank began work on i January 1915 

 with a capital of only 125,000 liras, but it ha'd otherwise and at a privileged 

 rate largel^^ insured the discount of its paper at the Banca d' Italia and some 

 flourishing co-operative banks. The amount of its loans in 1915 — all of 

 which had the form of short-term bills for four or, exceptionally, six months 

 — was 948,829 liras. In 1916 it was 2,640,410 liras, giving an increase of 

 1,741,581 liras. 



The method of regulating the course of business is simple. The bank 

 knows how its adherent societies go on because they are visited by its in- 

 spector and because its manager is in touch with their management. The 

 manager communicates to the bank's managing body his personal impres- 

 sions as to the soundness of the societies, and further brings back with him 

 from his tours a cop}^ of the reports on the inspection of societies and all 

 accessory forms and notes. The bank's management has special archives 

 among which each agricultural society has or will have a place in which to 

 store its by-laws, accounts, balance-sheets, reports, etc. On the basis of 

 these documents and the director's report the bank's council of adminis- 

 tration fixes the limits of the credit available for each agricultural society, 

 either for the discount of its paper or in the form of direct loans. This 

 credit is of course subject to periodic and extraordinary variations. 

 The societies having such credit at their disposal need only send the bills 

 in their portfolios or their non-acceptances to the bank in order to receive 

 the correspondent net sum, which is sent in the form of cheques on the 

 free banks of the Banca d' Italia, payable at sight and issued by the National 

 Bank of Rural Funds. 



In 1916 the savings deposits increased notably. They amounted at 

 the end of 1915 to 49,955 liras and on 31 December 1916 to 425,327 liras. 



To conclude, the National Bank of Italian Rural Funds should be judged 

 not only on what it has been able to accomplish in such an exceptional 

 ]:)eriod as that which it is now traversing, but also on what it hopes to ac- 

 complish in normal times. Its beginnings allow good hopes to be enter- 

 tained of its further activity. 



(i) For its organi'/atiou ^ee our is'^uc for June 1016, page ly. 



