342 THE WORK OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE
hand side provided for that purpose, and at 12 Mm. they are
given out to messengers of the clearing firms, who call for
them. The firms deposit the drafts to their own accounts in
their banks, who collect the proceeds from the Bank of the
Manhattan Trust Co. through the Bank Clearing House. Thus
all the funds deposited in this bank on a given day’s clearance
by the Night Branch are withdrawn by these drafts for the
same day. After this the work of the Night Branch is con-
cerned only with fines, statistics, perhaps special clearances,
and other miscellaneous tasks until late in the afternoon when
the current day’s clearance begins to demand another repeti-
tion of the Branch’s swift and efficient routine.
Thus the effect of the Night Branch clearance is to obviate
the delivery of securities and payment therefor on all inter-
mediate contracts in cleared securities, to mark all balance con-
tracts to a single settlement or delivery price for each issue, to
adjust by check and draft the money difference between security
values at these settlement prices and at their actual contract
prices, and finally to give direction to the security deliveries to
be made between deliverers and receivers. Thus the two first
stages of the entire process—namely, comparison and security
clearance—are concluded ; methods of actual security delivery
will be related in the next chapter, and the two final stages of
monev clearance and settlement in Chapter XIV.
Benefits of the Night Branch Clearance.— Although the
operations of the Night Branch constitute today only a part of
the entire work of the Stock Clearing Corporation, nevertheless
before continuing into its other functions it would be well to
note in just what the benefits of Night Branch operations
consist.
Most important has been the enormous saving effected in
the amount of banking accommodation required to settle Stock
Exchange contracts each day. Statistics compiled over a period
of years show that about go% of the total reported sales of
<hares on the Stock Exchange have been cleared, -and of this
