Effects of Federal Reserve services on the efficiency of the system for collecting checks in the United States: 1915--30

R. Gilbert

No 1999-014, Working Papers from Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Abstract: This paper investigates whether the services of the Federal Reserve System improved the efficiency of the system in the United States for collecting checks relative to the efficiency of the system used by banks just prior to the formation of the Federal Reserve. There are two types of evidence that the Fed's services improved efficiency. First, the Reserve Banks quickly became major processors of interregional checks, even though banks could have continued to use the prior payments arrangements. Second, declines in the ratios of cash to total assets of banks can be attributed to the development of the Fed's check collection services.

Keywords: Federal Reserve System; Payment systems; Check collection systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Explorations in Economic History, April 2000, 37(2), pp. 121-48.

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DOI: 10.20955/wp.1999.014

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