Republic of Estonia (Banking and Cürbency Befobm) 7 % Loan, 1927
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[Distributed to the Council and C. 186. M. 60. 1928. ii the Members of the League.] (F. 514.) Geneva, August 3rd, 1928. LEAGUE OF NATIONS REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA (BANKING AND CÜRBENCY BEFOBM) 7 % LOAN, 1927 FIRST ANNUAL REPORT BY THE TRUSTEE covering the period from June 15lh, 1927, to June 30th, 1928. I ntroduction . In conformity with the decision of the Council of September 15th, 1927. I have the honour to submit to the Council of the League of Nations my first annual report as Trustee for the " Republic of Estonia (Banking and Currency Reform) 7 % Loan. 1927 ”, it may be useful to give in this first report a somewhat detailed description of the execution of the scheme and of the duties of the Trustee. The essential features of the Estonian banking and currency reform, on which the Estonian Government and the financial experts of the League had already been working for some time, are contained in the Protocol signed at Geneva on December 10th. 1926. by the Estonian Minister of Finance, and approved by the Council on the same day. As provided for in this Protocol, the following laws were passed by the Estonian Parliament early in May 1927. viz., (1) the Eesti Pank Statutes Law, (2) the Monetary Law of Estonia, (3) the Law to terminate the Issue of Treasury and " Change ” Notes, and (4) the Foreign Loan Law 1. Thereupon, it was permissible to open negotiations for the loan which was to be issued under the auspices of the League and which was to produce an effective net yield of £1.350,000. F o r e ig n L o a n . The agreements for the loan, after submission to the Chairman of the Financial Committee for approval, were signed on June 15th, 1927, with representatix es of the British and American issuing houses, viz.. the British Foreign and Colonial Corporation, associated with the Midland Bank. London, and Messrs. Hallgarten & Co., New York. The British portion of the loan was £700.000 (of wdiich £200.000 were placed in Llolland, in the form of sterling bonds), and the American portion $4,000,000, or approximately £821,912. The loan bears interest at 7 per cent, and the issue price in both countries was 941 per cent, from which there had to be deducted the commissions and underwriting charges of the issuing houses, amounting, for the London issue, to 5 per cent and for the American portion to 5^ per cent. The net amount thus receivable by the Government was, in the case of the former, per cent, and in that of the latter, 89J per cent. At these respective net prices, the total yield of the loan, stated in terms of British currency, was about £1,361,600, which was duly paid on July 1st, 1927. The loan is to be repaid in forty years by an accumulative sinking fund of | per cent, to be employed half-yearly in the purchase of bonds below par, or in their amortisation by drawings at par. One of the clauses of the General Bond for the loan deserves special mention. Article 14 fcl) °f that document lays down that " the Government will not, so long as any of the bonds remain outstanding, permit the Statutes of the Bank of Issue as at present constitut ed to be altered in any manner which, in the opinion of the Financial Committee of the League of Nations, might te conducive to the depreciation of Estonian currency in terms of English or United States of America currency ”. 1 For the text of these laws, see document C.2*27.M.89.19*27.11. Publications of the League of Nations II, ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL 5,1 N. i.OoO (F.) 825 (A,) 8/28. — Imp, Réunies, Chambéry. 1928. II. 42. o __ W ith the issue of the loan, the duties of the Trustee began. These duties fall into two parts : (a) The supervision of the employment of the loan proceeds ; (b) The control of the assigned revenues. Sir Walter J. I’. Williamson. C.M.G., who was nominated by the Council as AdvLev to the Eesti Pank. has been acting throughout as my representative in the carrying out of my duties as Trustee. It is with pleasure that I take this opportunity of thanking Sir Walter Williamson publicly for his valuable and intelligent collaboration. T h e E m p l o y m e n t o f t h e L o a n P r o c e e d s . In accordance with Article I, sub 5, of the Protocol, the yield of the loan was paid into a special account under the control of the Trustee. Article IX' provides that the loan may be employed and that the Trustee shall p i mit payments, only for the following two purposes : (1) " The payment by the Estonian Government to the Bank of Issue of an amount equivalent to one million pounds sterling, in exchange for long-term assets of the Bank. (2) “ The application by the Estonian Government of the balance of the loan for the establishment of a mortgage institute. The net proceeds of the loan were therefore to be divided into two portions, viz., £1,000,000, to be allotted to the Eesti Pank in payment of a corresponding value of long-term loans to be transferred to a new Mortgage Bank to be created for the purpose, and £350,000 to be given to that institution as capital. It was also provided that the new Statutes of the Eesti Pank should become operative as soon as it had received the above-mentioned sum of £1,000,000. and that the Monetary Law and the Law to terminate the Issue of Treasury and 11 Change ” Notes were to come into force simultaneously with the Eesti Pank Statutes. It will thus be seen that the establishment of the Mortgage Bank was the last, and an essential, link in the chain of enactments required to carry out the scheme of financial reform. It accordingly became the task of the Government, after the return of the Minister of Finance from London, to frame the required Statutes and present them to Parliament. Pending their enactment, which it was hoped might be effected in time to allow of the entire scheme coming into force by the beginning-of December 1927, the Government issued instructions to the Eesti Pank in July 1927. under the authority of the Statutes then in force, to prepare detailed lists of its discounts, loans, and advances, divided into the three categories indicated in the report of the Financial Committee, dated December 8th, 1926, viz., (a) items of a long-dated character to be transferred to the Government, for eventual transfer to the Mortgage Bank ; (b) items to remain on the books of the Eesti Pank under the Government guarantee, to the amount of approximately Ekr. 15 million, representing credits which, though more liquid than those referred to above, wrere still mainly long-term in character, and (c) items of a short-term character which conformed to the new Statutes of the Bank. The Government at the same time appointed a representative, who was to report to the Minister of Finance regarding groups (a) and (b) above, and further instructed the Bank that the entire classification was to be approved by the Adviser. The Bank was, at the same time, directed gradually to bring its operations into conformity with the New Statutes, as set forth in Article 51 thereof, with a view to their final adoption by December 1st. 1927. The Mortgage Bank Statutes were presented to Parliament early in November, but it speedily became evident that there was a considerable amount of dissatisfaction on the part of the New Settlers (one of the Government groups) regarding the powers of the Bank to grant the particular type of loans in which they were interested, viz.. loans to the smaller farmers who have little or no real property to offer as security. Certain of the opposition parties also raised the point that Parliament had not been given sufficient information as to the nature of the assets to be transferred to the Government by the Eesti Pank. A motion was proposed to appoint a special Commission to re-examine the Statutes of the Mortgage Bank and to report to Parliament on the nature of the above-mentioned assets. The Government, while at first opposed to the appointment of this Commission, eventually agreed to accept it if a short time-limit was fixed for its labour ; but this the proposers of the motion declined to accept. It was accordingly carried in its original form, and the Government thereupon resigned on November 23rd, 1927. but continued in office in conformity with local constitutional practice, pending the formation of a new Government. As it was now evident that the reform scheme could not come into force by the beginning of D ecem ber as originally contemplated, the Government issued a new set of instructions to the Eesti Pank on November 25th. 1927. According to these instructions, operations by the Bank in respect of group (a) of the classification were restricted to items in regard to which there were prior unfulfilled obligations, or to operations approved by the Government representative, while, as regards group (b), the Bank was directed to prepare liquidation schemes for each item in agreement with the Government representative, providing for the settlement of the loan as speedily as the circumstances of the debtor rendered possible. Cases where the liquidation extended beyond three years were to be referred to the Government.