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9/61 Minutes for To: Members of the Board From: Office of the Secretary June 19, 1962 Attached is a copy of the minutes of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on the above date. 1/ It is not proposed to include a statement 'with respect to any of the entries in this set of !!linutes in the record of policy actions required to De maintained pursuant to section 10 of the Federal Reserve Act. Should you have any question with regard to the minutes, it will be appreciated if you will advise .ithe l Secretary's Office. Otherwise, please initial ielOw. If you were present at the meeting, your nitials will indicate approval of the minutes. If : J°11 were not present, your initials will indicate °41Y that you have seen the minutes. Chm. Martin Gov. Mills Gov. Robertson Gov. Balderston Gov. Shepardson Gov. King Gov. Mitchell 1/ Meeting with Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks. A joint meeting of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks was held in the Board Room of the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DI C., on Tuesday, June 19, 1962, at 12A40 p.m. PRESENT: Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Mr. Martin, Chairman Balderston, Vice Chairman Mills Robertson Shepardson King Mr. Sherman, Secretary Mr. Kenyon, Assistant Secretary Messrs. Ellis, Hayes, Bopp, Fulton, Wayne, Bryan, Scanlon, Deming, Clay, and Swan, Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and San Francisco, respectively Messrs. Francis and Shuford, First Vice Presidents of the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis and Dallas, respectively In a letter to the Board dated April 30, 1962, the Comptroller Of the Currency had advised of a schedule of increased charges, effective June 1, 1962, for furnishing to Federal Reserve Banks e°Pies of reports of examination of national and District of Columbia banks. Subsequently the Comptroller agreed with Chairman Martin to defer the effective date until July 1, 1962. Under date of May 11, 1962, the Board advised the Reserve Bank Presidents of the proposed schedule of charges and solicited their comments. Later, after those c°YrIments had been received, the Board indicated to the Chairman of 6/19/62 -2- the Presidents' Conference that it would like to meet with the Presidents on this subject. Following introductory remarks by Chairman Martin which he c oncluded by indicating that the Board would welcome any suggestions the Presidents might have, question was raised as to available al ternatives. Essentially, it appeared that unless the Comptroller Should change his position the only alternatives were to pay for copies for examination reports according to the announced schedule Of charges or to do without such reports. Whereas the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had statutory authority for access to reports of examination of national banks, the Federal Reserve did not have Comparable authority. Should Hence, it appeared that if the Comptroller so desire, the Federal Reserve could be denied access. Comments made by several of the Presidents during the ensuing di scussion reflected a unanimity of view that the schedule of charges was unreasonable, substantially exceeding the cost of producing extra "Pies of examination reports. This was pointed out to be true, Particularly, in the case of reports of examination of small banks and smaller trust departments, since the charges were not on a slidingseals basis. At the same time there was a clear consensus that it was of considerable value to the Reserve Banks, in discharging their l'esPonsibilities, to have the reports of examination of national banks available. Such being the case, the option to paying the stated Charges might be for the Reserve Banks themselves to make examinations Of national banks, which procedure would be more costly and would 901 6/19/62 -3- involve significant problems. However, there were a number of expressions to the effect that it would not seem necessary to purchase more than one examination report per national bank per year. Along the same lines, it was suggested that separately-bound reports of examination of branches and reports of examination of trust departments might not need to be obtained so frequently as at present. There was some apprehension that an agreement to pay the charges announced by the Comptroller might open the door to still greater charges in the future. For this reason, especially, the thought was expressed that if the Board should decide to advise the Comptroller that the new schedule of charges would be paid, the point should be made clear, in a letter to the Comptroller, that the consent to Pay — these charges was given only reluctantly, in view of the need for access to such reports by the Federal Reserve Banks in order to fulfill their responsibilities, and that it did not reflect any change in the view, previously stated by the Board to the Comptroller, that in principle the charges should be limited to the cost of production Of extra copies, as determined on some reasonable accounting basis. There was general agreement among the Presidents with the foregoing point of view. Other comments made during the discussion included a suggestion that the Board might want to consider including a statement on the matter, should the schedule of charges be accepted, in its Annual RePort to the Congress, in order that the problem might be brought to the attention of appropriate Congressional committees for consideration. 2214 6/19/62 Further discussion, which was generally along the lines suggested by the foregoing paragraphs, concluded with an expression of appreciation by Chairman Martin for the comments and suggestions of the Presidents, which he indicated would be taken into account by the Board in its further consideration of the question. The meeting then adjo ed.
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