Statistics, Facts & Such

Visa is now accepted by 12 million merchants worldwide.

The Internal Revenue Service says senior citizens file 44% of all unnecessary income tax returns. Last year 5,000,000 individuals who were not required to file, did so anyway.

97 new bank charters were issued in 1995. Applications are "in the works" for 90 more already in 1996.

In 1988, 221 commercial banks failed. Seven years later, in 1995, six (6) failed.

About 55% of Bank of America's retail accounts have chosen truncation for their checking accounts.

The Federal Reserve check sorting machines can handle 100,000 checks an hour.

Student Loan national average default rate in 1990 was 22.4%. In 1993 it dropped to 11.6%

The top three credit card issuers in the country are Citibank, Discover and MBNA America.

Fannie Mae, with $317 billion in assets, is the largest financial corporation in the United States. Chemical/Chase is second with $304 billion.

25% of private sector mortgage loans made in 1994 were secured with less than a 10% down payment: 21% with less than 20% down-the largest share of such mortgages since 1984.

Mortgage Information Corporation, a research group out of San Francisco, says the delinquency rate for home loans in 1994 is 60% more than the year before.

Mortgage originations fell nearly 25% in 1994, and are expected to show the same trend in 1995 figures.

Copyright © 1996 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 6, No. 5, 3/96