Banking is one of Cleveland's most important industries. We've all read news headlines describing its trials and tribulations. The Cleveland Public Library's Business Department has an impressive collection of resources on this industry, a few of these are described below.
The Business Department has sources for bank ratings, TheStreet.Com Ratings Guide to Banks and Thrifts (formerly Weiss Ratings), and LACE Financial Corporation's LACE Quarterly Financial Institution Ratings. The first is a quarterly and gives letter grades from A+ to F. It analyzes U.S. commercial banks, savings banks, and savings and loans. One valuable piece of information the guide provides is total home mortgages as a percentage of total assets.
The second title, LACE Quarterly Financial Institution Ratings, covers banks, bank holding companies, credit unions and savings and loans. Its rating system is based on key financial ratios representing liquidity, asset quality, capital, and earnings (hence the name!).
Other useful titles include The Bank Directory, World Bank Directory, and North American Financial Institutions, all published by Accuity. In addition to contact information, officers and directors, and financial figures, these contain domestic and international bank routing codes and SWIFT codes, also known as BIC, or banker's identification code. SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
Titles by Ibbotson Associates such as Stocks, Bonds, Bills, and Inflation Classic Yearbook give a comprehensive, historical view of the performance of capital markets going back to 1926.
In addition, we have directories on related subjects including directories of trust banking, credit unions, mortgage brokers and investment managers. There is Plunkett's Banking, Mortgages and Credit Industry Almanac, and Plunkett's Financial Services Industry Almanac. These include industry research and trends in regional banks, mortgages and consumer finance.
CPL also has interesting early works in the Microform Center such as this title from 1675 by Thomas Turner:
The case of the bankers and their creditors stated and examined. Wherein the property of the subject in this, and the like cases, is soberly asserted, by the common and statute laws of England, His Majesties most gracious declarations; by innumerable, great and important records of this kingdom, from the time of the Norman conquest to our own times; by the civil law, history, polity, morality, and common reason: and all objections undeniably refuted. As it was inclosed in a letter to a friend, By a true lover of his King and countrey, and sufferer for loyalty.
For more leisurely reading the department has an extensive collection of circulating books. Some titles include:
Barclays, The Business of Banking 1690-1996
Ackrill, Margaret
Call Number: HG 2998 .B34 A37 2001
Medici Money
Parks, Tim
Call Number: HG 3090 .F562 P37 2005
Bank of Scotland
Cameron, Alan
Call Number: HG 3000 .E34 C36 1995x
Bank of Israel
Barkai, Haim
Call Number: HG 3260 .A7 B40 2007
Banker to the Poor
Yunus, Muhammad
Call Number: HG 3290.6 .A6 Y86 1999
FDR'S First Fireside Chat: Public Confidence and the Banking Crisis
Kiewe, Amos
Call Number: HG 2461 K54 2007
Risk Management in Banking
Bessis, Joel
Call Number: HG 1615 .B45713 2002
Your Bank is Ripping You Off
Mrkvicka Jr, Edward
Call Number: HG 1616 .C87 M743 1997
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