EXPENSES IN DISTRICTS I AND II 29
TABLE 172

Ratios oF Torar ExPENSE T0 EARNING Assets, MEMBER BANKs,
NEW York FEDERAL RESERVE DISTRICT, 1923-1925,
CLASSIFIED BY Size or CIty

Size or Crry
{in 000’s)

Total

Numhea



Ccraon



102¢

Number ! Average

Under 10
foto 20
20 to 40
40 to 120 ‘
120 and over* :
New York City

*Excent New York Citv

banks. Data are available for 280 banks in 1923, 299 in 1924,
and 277 in 1925, the same banks being used each year “except
for closed banks and others which changed their classification
because of increased loans and investments.” The basis of
selection is described by the Federal Reserve Agent as follows:
“There are more than 850 member banks in this district, and
it did not seem practicable or necessary to tabulate the figures
for all of these banks. It was found that typical operating
ratios could be secured by dividing the banks into 7 groups,
in accordance with their total loans and investments, and then
selecting 40 banks, varied as to location, from each of these
groups to show the tendencies of the group.”® It is the ratios
for- the individual banks, as thus selected in 192 3, and with the
substitutions supplied by the Assistant Federal Reserve Agent
[or the years 1924 and 1923, that this Section deals.
Table 172 gives the ratios? for the sample member banks in
the Second district, classified by the size of the city in which
‘hey are located, those for banks in New York City being separately
 distinguished. There seems to be little or no functional
relationship between the sizes of the ratios and the city-group
SPart of a letter to the writer from W. Randolph Burgess, Assistant Federal
Reserve Agent, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, July 6, 1926.
6 “A Comparison of the Operation of Representative Member Banks in the Second
 Federal Reserve District for the Vear 1923,” Federal Reserve Agent, Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, Circular No. 618, July 17, 1924, p. 1.
"The figures in the table, which are arithmetic means of the ratios, are generally
 larger for the various years than the weighted ratios for all member banks in
the district. as shown in Table <6.