60 BEPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.

fore, have been accustomed to give credit for 90 days or longer
against the purchaser’s paper, which could be readilv discounted.!

Information of business conditions, ‘of credit standing of customers,
 ete.—The banks which do the kind of business just referred
to are obliged, in their regular routine, to keep themselves informed
of the responsibility and standing of houses whose paper is, or is
likely to be, offered to them. Thus, for their own purposes, they
accumulate a mass of credit information, which they are able to
make available for the business purposes of their customers.
The British banks, with their system of branches, agencies, and
correspondents, extending to every important center of foreign commerce,
 have facilities for gathering commercial information which
are perhaps greater than any other, and have till recent vears been
incomparably greater.
The only other banking system that rivals the British in the
extent of its foreign relations is the German. Belgian, Swiss, and
French banks, and those of other countries, have less comprehensive
connections, reaching especially the regions with which they have
axtensive trade. Thus.

Foreign banks supply their home offices in Europe with the ratings
and characteristics of South American firms and individuals. German
 trade has been extended largely by aid of longer credits than
were accorded by British houses; the German banks have been more
minute in their organization of this service. Latin-American business
 men calling upon banks at Hamburg have been astonished at
the familiarity of bank officials with the character of their business.
It is not to be expected that in the campaign for Brazilian trade
foreign banks will give credit information as readily to American
concerns as to traders of their own nationality. Americans can and
do obtain credit information from foreign banks in South America,
but as a rule its possession results in no material stimulation of competition.
 If an American lumber or flour company asks a German
or British bank for the financial rating of a certain Brazilian client,
or for specific information regarding the condition of his business,
the bank readily may comply, for the resulting sales in lumber or
flour are noncompetitive. It is doubtful if inquiries preliminary to
a transaction in competitive manufactures would be so readily answered.
 Credit information is a prime banking asset in Brazil, acquired
 only by timely, painstaking, and long-continued effort. No
financial institution may be expected to part with it to occasional
clients. Of course, where an American firm is an old and a profitable
client of a foreign bank in Brazil, it may have access to credit information
 on the same terms as customers of the same nationality
as the bank, just as it would receive equal credit. But, however convenient
 such an arrangement may appear, it possesses inherent weakness?


1 Daily Consular and Trade Reports, Nov. 4, 1914, p. 581.
3 Hurley, op. cit,, pn. 11. 46 47.