Mr. GARY. Mr. Shreve, on those redemptions shown on that chart, can you tell us what percentage of the redemptions are maturities? Mr. SHREVE. I do not think we have that information. Mr. GARY. Will you insert that in the record, please? Mr. SHREVE. Yes. (The information furnished follows:) Redemption ratios, by fiscal years Mr. SHREVE. Chart No. 2 shows sales of series H alone, plotted by months, during fiscal year 1953, 1954, and 1955. This current-income companion to the E-bond was first introduced in June 1952. Note the substantial gains year after year-in fiscal year 1953 sales were only $360 million, or an average of $30 million a month. The following year the amount stepped up to $665 million-$55 million average a month. In fiscal year 1955 H bond sales were $1,130 million, or a nonthly average of $94 million, 70 percent above the year previous. I was a little disappointed there because I had hoped they would reach a monthly average of $100 million. We hope to lift fiscal 1956's amount higher than that. The chart referred to follows:) SELLING BIGGER BONDS PROGRAM Mr. SHREVE. Chart 3 shows what we accomplished in the first year of the selling bigger bonds program. The program was initiated in the latter part of fiscal year 1954. Now an important part of all payroll savings promotions includes encouraging people to buy bigger sized bonds. We see E and H sales in fiscal year 1954 were $4.7 billion; 23 percent was derived from $25 sales. In fiscal year 1955 sales volume was stepped up to $5.2 billion, and $25 bonds accounted for 20 percent of the total. On the right hand side of the chart we see sales by pieces in the same years. In 1954, 85.4 million individual pieces of E- and H-bonds were sold and 67 percent of the total pieces was $25 size. In fiscal year 1955 when sales increased more than one-half billion dollars over the previous year, the total number of individual pieces placed amounted to 85.3 million, of which 65 percent was $25 bonds. So, while E- and H-bonds produced a substantially higher dollar volume in fiscal year 1955, a smaller number of bonds were sold. The $25 denomination sales were 1,700,000 pieces under the 1954 total. I have come to the conclusion that we are never really going to make a dent in that particular effort that is going to be significant in the reduction of our cost of operation. I am convinced we have to find some way of reducing the cost of handling the bonds so that we can more nearly break even. Intensive research is going on at the present ime along that line, and I really believe, Mr. Kilby, this year will how some real progress. Mr. KILBY. I am confident it will. (The chart referred to follows:) |