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The general absence of legal reserve requirements upon the reserves of non-U.S. banks offering dollar-denominated deposit facilities (hereafter Eurobanks) provides a unique opportunity for analysis of reserve determination by a fractional-reserve financial intermediary. This paper presents evidence that the reserve ratio in the Euro-dollar system is low and falling and is in fact determined by behavior which is consistent with the hypothesis that Euro-bank dollar deposits in U.S. commercial banks (excluding loans to home offices) are held as precautionary reserves. The demand for such loans to home offices largely determines their level. Since the theory of precautionary balances held by commercial banks is consistent only with the profit maximization principle of commercial banks' asset management, where commercial banks' responses to market forces determines portfolio behavior, we shall be concerned here primarily with the determination of Euro-banks demand deposit claims on U.S. commercial banks, exclusive of loans to home offices. Evidence reported below does in fact suggest that the behavior of liabilities to foreign branches of U.S. banks is not consistent with the profit maximization principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents comments on the research paper by Joseph Aschheim entitled "Supplementary Security-Reserve Requirements Reconsidered." Presented are comments on how the volume of bank deposits is regulated in Great Britain. The author states that Aschheim's analysis is "limited to supplementary security-reserve requirements with the objective of insulating bank-held government debt, in whole or in part, from the impact of restrictive monetary policies on the private credit market." Comments on the liquidity ratio in Great Britain are also provided.