642
APPENDIX
development of this sort; and (2) both London and New York have
specialized and concentrated financial districts in which a decentralized
security handling system would “work” tolerably well, while it could
not prove equally satisfactory in Paris or Berlin, where financial
houses are to a greater extent scattered throughout the city.
The Security Centralization Committee of the New York Stock
Exchange, although conscious of the theoretical (and perhaps in New
York the ultimately practical) value of handling securities by the
check-and-deposit system of the Bank des Berliner Kassen-Vereins,
decided that before this superior practice could be effectually inaugu-
rated in New York, it would first be necessary to centralize the
security delivery system under the New York Stock Exchange. Ac-
cordingly, in 1928 the Exchange authorized the establishment of a
Central Security Delivery Department, and the Stock Clearing Cor-
poration undertook to work out the details of its operation. A room
in the basement of the Stock Exchange building near the corner of
Wall and Broad Streets was accordingly remodeled, provided with
windows and cages for receiving and delivering security tellers, and
tables and racks inside for sorting out and temporarily filing the securi-
ties to be delivered through the Department. The new delivery system
was actually inaugurated April 18, 1929; at first deliveries of only
a few large and active share issues were handled through it, with
the idea of testing the new system practically before extending its
scope widely to the security list. The economies and greater speed
of settlement obtained by the new system quickly led to its increased
amployvment with listed issues.
(X1IIIb) Since, by rule of the New York Stock Exchange (Con-
stitution, Article XXI) corporations cannot possess or exercise mem-
bership in the Exchange, thesincorporated New York banks and trust
companies cannot be members of the Stock Clearing Corporation on
:he same basis as Stock Exchange members. Nevertheless, a consid-
erable volume of security deliveries and payments is made daily be-
tween the incorporated New York banking institutions and members
of the New York Stock Exchange, in respect to which the Stock
Clearing Corporation can effect the same savings as in the dealings
hetween Exchange members.
As a preliminary and experimental step in developing centralized
delivery, the Stock Clearing Corporation during January, 1928, estab-
lished facilities for centralizing security deliveries, and clearing and
settling money payments therefor, in dealings between all Stock Ex-
change members and two large New York trust companies. This
service was of course on a voluntary basis. and was at first utilized