Q. What dividend do you pay?
A. We now pay 6 per cent.; for several years it was only 5 per cent.
Q. Does the Government receive no income from it?
A. No; on the contrary, the Government began by giving us a subsidy of 10,000,000 francs; that was at the beginning, in 1852, in order to help us make loans at a rate advantageous for that time. This subsidy was not renewed, and the State does not intervene now, except occasionally to exercise its control.
Q. Does the company appoint the officers?
A. The Government appoints the governor and the two sub-governors. There must also be three treasurers-general among the 23 members of the council of administration. These treasurers, as well as the other administrators, are named by the general assembly of stockholders; but before presenting their names to this assembly, it is customary to obtain the approval of the Minister of Finance.
Q. Do you pay the same taxes as the other banks?
A. Yes. We are treated like any ordinary bank. We have the special privilege of issuing bonds secured by mortgages. It is a very complicated system in France; there are legal complications which would render it impossible for any corporation to undertake the business unless it had special privileges.
Q. Are you confined by law to business with mortgages?
A. We have two principal kinds of operations—mortgage loans and communal loans. The total business of the two branches of operations amounts at present to about 4,000,000,000 francs. Operations on so large a scale involve a considerable transfer of funds, and make necessary a treasury service requiring, of course, the use of banking methods. Our statutes, therefore, recognise our right to carry on ordinary banking operations, within certain rather sharply defined limits.