OCC Reissues Classic History Text: The Comptroller and Bank Supervision: A Historical Appraisal

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced the re-publication of an out-of-print text on the national bank system and banking regulation, The Comptroller and Bank Supervision: A Historical Appraisal. The 1995 edition includes an addendum written by OCC economic historian Jesse H. Stiller.

The original text was commissioned in the mid-1960s by then Comptroller of the Currency James J. Saxon, and written by the late Ross M. Robertson, an economist who came to the OCC as a visiting scholar in 1965. Upon its publication in 1968, Robertson's book was the only comprehensive reference work on the OCC and national bank regulation in the United States and has been widely used by economists, historians, academia and banking scholars.

In the addendum to this classic text, Stiller reflects on the dynamic changes in banking and bank regulation that have occurred over the past thirty years and discusses the many legislative and regulatory changes that have shaped the environment banks operate in today. In a statement to OCC employees and national banks, Comptroller Eugene A. Ludwig said, "Together, Robertson and Stiller remind us that many of the challenges we face today are rooted in the complexities of the past. An awareness of that history — our history — is vital if the national banks and the communities that depend upon them are to prosper into the next century."

To order The Comptroller and Bank Supervision, mail a request along with a check for $7.50 for each book ordered to The Comptroller of the Currency, P.O. Box 70004, Chicago, IL 60673-0004.