Community banks in Tenth District states had another good year in 1998. They continued to benefit from solid growth in the district economy. And in contrast to some large banks in other parts of the country, they were largely unaffected by the turmoil in financial markets in the latter part of...

In the last two decades, retail payments have experienced a dramatic shift from paper-based payment methods to electronic methods. Accurate cost information for the two types of methods would help central banks decide how hard to push for a complete transition to electronic methods and which...

The last decade has seen a surge in new methods for making person-to-person (P2P) payments. Despite the surge, studies show that U.S. consumers still prefer to make P2P payments with checks and cash. In fact, P2P payments by check are the only method of payment that is still increasing. ;...

One of the most important roles commercial banks perform is to lend to small businesses. Such lending is vital to the regional economy because small businesses generally lack access to alternative sources of credit and because they account for a major share of job creation. Moreover, small...

While bank security holdings have increased sharply in recent years, there is widespread disagreement about the significance of the increase. Some analysts argue that the increase is not a cause for concern because it results from temporary factors such as the business cycle. Others argue that...