Volume 2 - ElectricCanadian.com

THE BRANCH CLEARINGS SYSTEM 533office by the device of checking the entries in the Head OfficeAccount Current returns of the branches from the correspondingentries in the Advice and Remittance Lists. This releasedfor other duties a number of clerks who for many years hadbeen obliged to devote their time to filling huge journals withthese entries and posting the results, in the branch ledgers athead office.As soon as the bank ceased to be confined almost entirelyto Ontario, the limitations of the existing system becameevident. As its business grew, the number of entries betweenbranches increased rapidly, and as soon as branches wereopened in distant places, such as the Yukon, Vancouver, andSeattle, a considerable length of time must necessarily elapsebefore entries made by these branches could be respondedto by a branch in the east, and vice versa. Thus the crosscheckingin the department of the chief accountant at headoffice, on which also the whole burden of the detection oferrors fell, was increased enormously, and at the same time theadjustment of the accounts became very cumbersome owingto the large number of items outstanding for a considerablelength of time. When the Bank of British Columbia was takenover at the beginning of 1901, these difficulties became stillworse.unfamiliarityIts branches were mostly on the Pacific Coast, and theof the officers of that bank with the intricaciesof the Advice and Remittance List added to the number oferrors that were made. 1The next attempt to devise improved methods was madeon the date when this amalgamation took place. CommencingJanuary 1, 1901, 2 the same method was adopted for draftsas was already in use in the case of the bank money orders of1 From March 15, 1901, all entries between the London, Eng., office and branches inCanada not keeping direct accounts with that office were made through the Montrealbranch.'See Head Office circular dated December 18, 1900.Aa the information given inthese appendices is intended in many cases for the use of officers of the bank, referenceis made at times to instructions and other particulars which naturally have no interestfor the general reader.