Reserve Bank of Australia Annual Report – 1976 Financial Developments in Australia

At the beginning of 1975/6, the volume of money was growing rapidly under the stimulus of the continuing large deficit of the public sector, but attention was being directed to turning around the very easy monetary and fiscal policies which had been brought into effect during 1974/5. In July, market yields on longer term government securities were increased, and the August Budget was framed to curb spending growth and to hold down the level of the prospective deficit. However, because of a slower growth in wages, and consequent lower PAYE tax collections, the Australian Government deficit in the first half-year was larger than that implied by the Budget. As a consequence, despite the trading banks' limiting of their lending to levels requested by the Reserve Bank and a substantial rundown in overseas reserves, the growth in the volume of money (narrowly or broadly defined) continued, in the half-year to December 1975, at an underlying rate of around 20 per cent per annum. Many groups of financial intermediaries including savings banks, permanent building societies and to a lesser extent finance companies, expanded their balance sheets rapidly in this period. Trading bank liquidity also rose despite the substantial offsetting actions detailed elsewhere in this Report.

Savings banks and permanent building societies continued to approve loans for housing in the half-year to December 1975 at a very rapid rate. However, with economic activity slack and demand for funds moderate, intermediaries generally applied a large proportion of available funds to increasing their liquidity. Whilst many groups were willing to add to holdings of liquid assets there was a tendency for interest rates, particularly for short term funds, to decline; there were reductions in rates paid by banks, permanent building societies and finance companies. Share prices continued rising moderately.

7 Interest Rates & Security Yields

The Government newly elected in December 1975 set to work to cut further the growth in expenditure and so to cut back the budget deficit. The changes, however, had little immediate effect on liquidity, which was given further temporary support by the postponement until May of the February instalment of company tax.

With liquidity in the economy clearly excessive, a number of new monetary measures were announced in January. As well as furthering its action on expenditure restraint, the Government pressed sales of government securities with the aim of absorbing some of the excess liquidity. In particular, a new Australian Savings Bond, with a rate structure pitched to achieve early acceptance, tapped into the flow of savings of the household sector, which had been growing rapidly but had not been moving directly into government securities. The thrust towards increased sales of government securities did not involve a general rise in bond yields. Indeed, there were thought to be grounds for official endorsement of the tendency for market determined interest rates to fall and some administered interest rates were reduced: maximum rates chargeable on “smaller” bank loans were lowered; so were yields on Treasury notes. The free liquidity of the major trading banks was reduced by an agreement between the banks and the Reserve Bank for an increase, for the period to March 1977, in the minimum LGS ratio.

These measures transformed the financial climate; the Australian Savings Bond brought about a dramatic increase in net sales of government securities. Although the savings bonds are relatively liquid in the hands of their holders, an immediate effect was to absorb some of the excess liquidity in the economy as reflected in the availability of funds to private sector intermediaries. The initial impact seemed most noticeable on the flows of funds to banks and building societies but the ramifications progressively spread through financial markets generally, and the earlier tendency for interest rates to ease downwards dissipated.

The June quarter saw a strong seasonal rundown in liquidity, the sharper because it included the deferred February instalment of company tax. Financial conditions had been constrained by the moves mentioned above; substantial action was taken by the Reserve Bank to spread out over time the impact of the heavy tax flows in April and May on the liquidity of the private and financial sectors.

The Bank eased the pressures on trading bank liquidity by reductions in the SRD ratio. The rate of interest on Savings Bonds (which had already undergone one reduction) was trimmed further at the beginning of April. As the transfers of tax funds to the Government proceeded in April and May, it became clear that they exceeded the funds earmarked for the purpose by banks and the private markets, and to avert undue temporary stringency the Reserve Bank expanded its operations sharply in the purchasing of short government securities, of bank bills (including exceptionally, some small direct purchases from banks) and in making last resort loans to money market dealers. The Bank's peak holdings of bank bills was some $480 million early in June. There was some seasonal rise in short term interest rates, but long term interest rates were unaffected. The period of heavy transfer of funds from the private sector to government was traversed with little strain, although banks spent much of the June quarter with LGS ratios not much higher than the 23 per cent minimum.

In June, the government accounts moved back into deficit; liquidity tended to rise under this influence, but the repayment of last resort loans by money market dealers and the running down of the Reserve Bank's portfolio of bills provided an offset. The latter had a continuing effect into the early months of 1976/7.

For 1975/6 as a whole, the growth in the volume of money widely defined (M3) was 13.8 per cent, about one percentage point lower than in each of the two preceding years. During the half-year to June 1976, the pace of growth was much reduced; the underlying annual rate of increase was of the order of 9 per cent.

Government Finance

The Australian Government budgeted in August 1975 for an overall deficit in 1975/6 of $2.8 billion; this compared with the $2.6 billion out-turn for the 1974/5 deficit.

8 Volume of Money Major Influences
(HALF YEARLY CHANGES, NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED)

Apart from curtailing the rate of growth of spending, the 1975/6 budget provided for higher indirect taxes and changes in personal taxation arrangements. The latter included replacement of concessional deductions by rebates and a simplification of the tax scales that involved reductions in tax for many. In the event, wage incomes rose less rapidly than had been allowed for and although proceeds of net PAYE income taxes increased by 16 per cent to $7 billion, this was $1.7 billion below the budget estimate for the year. The effect on the budget result was moderated by higher collections of company and non-PAYE personal taxes. Outlays by the Australian Government, although slightly less than originally budgeted for, totalled $21.9 billion; this was 23 per cent more than in the previous year and equivalent to over 30 per cent of GDP in 1975/6. For the full year the out-turn was a deficit of $3.6 billion.

For some years, the non-bank private sector has tended to take up directly only a very small part of government debt issues; in the first half of 1975/6 only one-tenth of the deficit was financed in this way, and half of that was accounted for by life offices and money market dealers. Over this period there was, however, a very high saving ratio in the household sector with marked buoyancy in the funds experience of savings banks and permanent building societies. The instrument provided by the Government to meet the needs of the small investor, the Special Bond, had over recent years been attracting negligible amounts of new money, despite quite attractive yields; for instance, since August 1975 the yield to eventual maturity had been just over 10 per cent.

It was against this background that the Australian Savings Bond was introduced in January 1976 to replace the Special Bond. The new security embodies simple terms and is encashable at par on one month's notice; on the first series, an investor holding until the initial interest date (1 August 1976) received an interest rate of 10.5 per cent and, while continuing to hold the security, would earn at this rate during its seven-year life.

The pace of sale of the initial series of Savings Bonds was spectacular; $760 million was subscribed in less than three weeks. The effect of the issue in reducing the too-easy availability of funds in the private sector was immediate, and enabled the replacement of Series 1 in mid February by Series 2, which offered a coupon of 9.5 per cent and less favourable conditions for encashment before the first interest date (1 November). This Series was open for the remainder of the March quarter and $348 million was subscribed to it.

9 Government Finance
NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

A third series of Savings Bonds was opened on 5 April. For this series the interest offered was reduced further to 9.2 per cent. General financial conditions were now much tighter, and the net inflow into Savings Bonds continued at a much slower rate. In the June quarter net sales yielded $71 million lifting net raisings from Savings Bonds (and the discontinued Special Bonds) over 1975/6 to $1,124 million.

After the rise of up to half a percentage point in July 1975 for medium and longer dated securities, yields on conventional government bonds showed little change during the remainder of 1975/6. However, the January 1976 measures included the issue of a long term security for the first time since July 1974; this 18 year security was issued at 10.2 per cent compared with the 10 per cent rate that had obtained on bonds of ten years or longer after July 1975. Yields on Treasury notes were reduced in several steps during the year and with widening interest differentials between short and longer paper there was a marked lengthening of private sector portfolios of conventional government securities. The volume of Treasury notes on issue declined sharply in the first and last quarters of the year.

Sales of Savings Bonds accounted for most of the net sales of government securities to the non-bank sector (a little over $1.4 billion) over the year. In contrast to the large rise over 1974/5, there was only a small increase in banks' holdings of government securities in the twelve months to 30 June 1976. Thus the total increase in private sector holdings of government securities was $1.5 billion compared with the government deficit of $3.6 billion. As in other recent years net government borrowing overseas made little net contribution to the financing of the deficit.

Residual finance for the Government was provided from the Reserve Bank, initially by the running down of government cash balances and subsequently against Treasury bills and, on 30 June, against the issue of $500 million securities suitable for open market operations. The Reserve Bank's portfolio of marketable securities was also supplemented during the year by the purchase and exchange of securities in transactions with Commonwealth trust funds, to obtain maturities in stronger demand.

On 20 May, the Treasurer announced further fiscal measures. These included substantial revisions to arrangements for transferring incomes between the household and government sectors, including indexation of personal income tax rates and allowances, a levy to finance part of Medibank and replacement of taxation rebates for dependent children with higher child endowment. Apart from the Medibank levy the new arrangements came into effect in July 1976. The announcement also included details of further reductions in spending programs in continuation of the thrust to contain the growth of public expenditure.

Private Finance

Net borrowing by the non-finance Corporate Sector in 1975/6 appears to have been well below the very high level to which it had risen in 1974/5. Company profits increased in 1975/6 but remained low in relation either to previous shares of national income or to invested capital. In addition, with both stocks falling and fixed investment spending sluggish in the first half of the year, the corporate sector's need for new funds was generally much less acute than in 1974/5.

10 Private Finance
(NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED)

Share prices rose steadily through 1975 and, somewhat less rapidly, into 1976. By June the Sydney Stock Exchange “all ordinaries” index was over 80 per cent above the 1974 trough, but still about 25 per cent below the peaks achieved during the boom periods in the years 1968–73. Many companies took advantage of this strengthening in share prices to restore debt/equity ratios and partially offset the lower net flow of equity capital from overseas. In the nine months to March 1976, listed companies raised almost 70 per cent more share capital than in the corresponding period of 1974/5. Over the same period new fixed interest raisings by non-finance companies fell almost 60 per cent and raisings by finance companies, which had fallen in 1974/5, increased strongly.

11 Major Trading Banks
(SEASONALLY ADJUSTED)

The surplus of the Household Sector (including unincorporated enterprises) again increased strongly in 1975/6. The saving ratio appears to have remained close to the very high level to which it had risen in 1974/5. A large part of the surplus of the household sector has traditionally been directed into investment in dwellings, either directly or through institutions which specialise in the provision of finance for housing. This pattern continued in 1975/6, although with some slowing in the second half of the year.

Financial Intermediation

The sector with the largest surplus of income over expenditure (net lender) has recently been the household sector, and the largest deficit sector (net borrower) the Government. The greater part of transfers of funds between lenders and borrowers usually occurs through financial intermediaries. However, in the second half of 1975/6 a much higher proportion of the transfer of savings from households to governments took place directly through increased sales of government securities to the household sector, and the rate of growth of many intermediaries' balance sheets slowed markedly.

Trading Banks

Following a rise of 16 per cent in 1974/5, major trading bank deposits rose by 13 per cent in 1975/6. Deposits grew particularly rapidly in the twelve months to October 1975, thereafter (seasonally adjusted) they levelled out, then fell sharply in January/February before resuming growth over the final months of the financial year. Fixed deposits continued rising strongly in the early months of the year, partly at the expense of a continuing decline in certificates of deposit. Apart from a steadier period towards the end of 1974/5, interest rates offered by banks for certificates of deposit fell from a peak in June 1974 until January 1976, and total certificates of deposit on issue followed a broadly similar trend. After January, competition for funds, particularly from the Australian Savings Bond, induced banks to offer higher yields on both certificates of deposit and fixed deposits. After declining quite sharply in the early months of 1976, aggregate fixed deposits and certificates of deposit outstanding began rising again, and in June were 11 per cent higher than twelve months earlier. After rising strongly in the first half of 1975/6, current deposits with the major trading banks fell sharply in the June quarter (in both actual and seasonally adjusted terms) and the net rise over the year was 14 per cent. More than 90 per cent of all trading bank deposits are held by the seven major trading banks. Other trading banks have, however, been increasing their share; in the last two years deposits with these banks increased by 33 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

In accordance with a Reserve Bank request, the average weekly level of new and increased lending commitments entered into by the major trading banks changed little from the rate reached late in 1974/5. Banks were also asked during the course of 1975/6 to maintain a high rate of cancellation and reduction of existing commitments. In the event, the rate of cancellations of overdraft limits increased during the first three quarters of 1975/6, so that the growth of limits outstanding slowed. Usage of overdraft limits, after declining sharply in the second half of 1974/5, fell slowly for much of 1975/6. With financial conditions tight, demand for bank loans increased in the June quarter; one factor in the increased demand for loans was the need experienced for a period by building societies in Queensland for additional trading bank loan facilities. After rising moderately during the first three quarters of the year, overdrafts outstanding rose 11 per cent (not seasonally adjusted) in the June quarter and at June were almost $9 billion, 17 per cent higher than twelve months earlier. This includes amounts outstanding under bank charge cards and personal instalment loans, both of which expanded rapidly throughout the year.

Following a rise of 13 per cent in 1974/5, Term Loans outstanding rose by 17 per cent in 1975/6 to $1,163 million. Farm Development Loan approvals were a little above the low levels of 1974/5 and loans outstanding rose 13 per cent to $318 million. The banks' Term and Farm Development Loan accounts were replenished in the third quarter of 1975 by a total of $82 million, and a further replenishment totalling $159 million was announced in June 1976; as previously, about two-thirds of the funds came from banks' SRD accounts, and the remainder from their other assets.

Perhaps partly because of the request by the Reserve Bank for restraint in lending, banks' activity in bill financing, in contrast to the very rapid growth in 1974/5, expanded little in 1975/6. Acceptance/endorsement limits, which had grown by more than 50 per cent during 1974/5, remained fairly constant throughout the year at around $2.4 billion and bills outstanding against these limits fluctuated around $1.5 billion. Commitments outstanding to discount customers' bills increased to over $0.5 billion. After growing very rapidly in the six months to February 1975, banks' holdings of bills discounted fluctuated between $900 and $1,100 million for almost twelve months and then fell sharply to $502 million at June 1976.

The major trading banks entered 1975/6 with an average LGS ratio of over 26 per cent. This was a margin of free liquidity more than eight percentage points above the conventional minimum of 18 per cent and the highest July figure since the convention was set at that level in 1962. During July 1975 banks prepaid $112 million which had been made available under a special Reserve Bank facility established in October 1974, and the SRD ratio was raised from 3 per cent to 4 per cent. Despite this, and four further increases in the SRD ratio, after which it had risen from 3 per cent at the beginning of the financial year to 7.6 per cent, the LGS ratio of the banks was over 28 per cent by January 1976. As part of the monetary policy measures taken in January 1976, the Reserve Bank and the banks agreed on a temporary increase in the minimum ratio for purposes of the LGS convention from 18 per cent to 23 per cent. The higher ratio operated from the beginning of February 1976 and applies until the end of March 1977; all other elements of the LGS convention remain unchanged.

The events of the period from December 1975 to March 1976 reduced appreciably the buoyancy of bank deposits and liquidity, despite the postponement of the February company tax instalment. With the effects of the likely heavy and concentrated seasonal tax runoff in April and May in view, the Reserve Bank reduced the SRD ratio by a percentage point on 14 April and again on 28 April. As the size of the very heavy tax offtake became evident, the Reserve Bank supplemented its more accustomed actions by offering the major trading banks access to a moderate amount of additional liquidity; this could be availed of by sales of commercial bills by the banks directly to the Reserve Bank or by borrowing on non-penal terms from the Bank. Although little use was in fact made of this facility, its availability added an element of certainty to the trading banks' management of their funds over this period. The various actions taken to sustain public and banking liquidity in the April/May period were such as to enable banks to maintain their LGS ratios above 23 per cent without rates paid for bank deposits rising much above 10 per cent. In June the LGS ratio averaged 23.9 per cent.

Rates of interest on banks' fixed deposits are subject to a prescribed maximum; this has been 10 per cent since July 1974. Certificates of deposit (which are subject to a minimum of $50,000) have been free of interest rate restriction since September 1973. Between February 1972 and January 1976, only overdrafts drawn under limits of less than $50,000 were subject to a maximum rate of interest; this was 11.5 per cent from July 1974. Rates actually charged by banks had generally fallen a little since July 1974. From the beginning of February 1976 the maximum rate chargeable on “smaller” loans from both trading and savings banks was reduced to 10.5 per cent, and the limit up to which this maximum rate applied was raised to $100,000. These provisions applied immediately to new loans, but their application to existing loans was subject to phasing-in arrangements. The reduction in interest rates did not fully reflect through the range of rates charged to borrowers. This was because banks were left free to count as part of this reduction any reductions in interest rates that they had made since July 1974. In addition, banks could abate any indicated interest rate reductions by the amount of any “shielding” of a housing borrower's interest rate that they had extended on the occasion of the rise in the maximum lending rate in September/October 1973. Maximum rates of interest chargeable on personal instalment loans were also reduced from February 1976.

Saving Banks

Following an increase of 14 per cent in 1974/5, savings bank deposits continued to grow very strongly in the first half of 1975/6. After the introduction of the Australian Savings Bond the rate of growth of deposits slowed, but still attained 15 per cent for the year. The interest rates offered by savings banks on investment accounts and deposit stock were almost doubled in the year to July 1974, and balances in these accounts began growing very rapidly. The continued attraction of these accounts was evidenced in balances again growing strongly in 1975/6, although less dramatically than in the previous twelve months. Balances in ordinary accounts, interest rates on which generally have remained unchanged in recent years, increased during 1975/6 after falling in the previous year.

In response to official requests, savings banks had sharply stepped up their new lending approvals for housing in the December and March quarters of 1974/5, partly with the aid of funds made available by the Government for on-lending. Some reduction in lending followed the exhaustion of the Government advance, but with buoyant deposit experience running on into 1975/6, savings banks maintained a rate of new loan approvals close to the peak level achieved in the second half of 1974/5. Housing loans outstanding continued to rise very rapidly and at the end of 1975/6 were equal to 41 per cent of depositors' balances; this was 4 percentage points higher than twelve months earlier and 11 points higher than at the end of 1972/3. Savings banks have continued gradually to increase the proportion of their funds invested in local and semi-government securities; in 1975/6 their holdings of these securities rose a further $600 million to almost $3,900 million, about 26 per cent of depositors' balances. Savings bank holdings of Commonwealth Government securities have shown little net growth in the last three years and, as a proportion of depositors' balances, have declined from 27 to 19 per cent.

The maximum interest rate savings banks could charge on the majority of their loans was reduced by 1 per cent to 10.5 per cent from the beginning of February. As detailed in the preceding section on trading banks, this reduction did not necessarily reflect fully in rates charged to borrowers, particularly on housing loans.

Development Banks

The majority of loans made by the Australian Resources Development Bank represent refinancing of certain term loans of the trading banks. Following an increase of 28 per cent in the previous year, Resources Bank loans outstanding increased by 26 per cent in 1975/6 to $567 million. With decreased activity in the resources sector, few new loans were approved and the increase in outstandings largely represented drawings against earlier approvals. Following an increase of 11 per cent in 1974/5, total advances outstanding to the Commonwealth Development Bank rose by 9 per cent in 1975/6 to $363 million.

Non-Bank Finacial Intermediaries

For most of 1975/6 conditions were generally easier for financial intermediaries than in the previous year. Further reductions in the taxation benefits of payments for life assurance or superannuation reduced the incentives for savings through life offices. For a variety of reasons, a number of permanent building societies experienced at times a sharply reduced net inflow, or a net outflow, of funds, particularly in the second half of 1975/6.

Much of the seasonal and other major changes in liquidity in the economy are reflected in operations of the Authorised Money Market Dealers. On average, over 80 per cent of dealers' portfolios have been invested in short term Australian Government securities (including Treasury notes) with most of the remainder in commercial bills and bank certificates of deposit. At the end of June 1975, dealers' liabilities to clients totalled $850 million, almost double the level of a year earlier. As 1975/6 progressed, liabilities to clients expanded to reach $1,090 million during March. In the period of seasonal tightness these funds were lower; they were $652 million in early May. Over this period, dealers made heavy use of lender of last resort facilities with the Reserve Bank. Liabilities to clients rose again in June, and ended the year at $998 million – 17 per cent higher than in June 1975. The weighted average rate of interest on dealers' loans outstanding from clients in the nine months to March 1976 was generally in the 6.5 to 7.5 per cent range; for much of the June quarter it was almost one percentage point higher.

Finance Companies experienced a severe check to expansion through the tightening of financial conditions in 1974. With conditions generally easy in 1975 these companies found it much easier to raise new debenture borrowings, and, having restored their liquidity, they increased their rate of new lending to both households and businesses in the first half of 1975/6.

Towards the end of 1975 when markets were flush with funds, finance companies lowered the rates of interest offered for debentures and notes. The reductions were more pronounced for shorter term securities and were partly reversed in the closing weeks of 1975/6. The inflow of funds to finance companies remained generally buoyant in the second half of the year and they moved to a higher rate of new lending. In the twelve months to May 1976 loans and advances outstanding to finance companies (other than those defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as merchant banks) increased by 17 per cent compared with 6 per cent in the corresponding period of 1974/5.

12 Selected Financial Institutions
NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED, LOG SCALE

Merchant Banks also experienced difficult conditions in 1974 and balance sheet growth over much of 1975 was largely directed to augmenting liquidity. Lending increased in the first half of 1976, partly by running down liquid assets. At the end of May 1976 this group's main lending forms – balances outstanding under financial agreements and bills of exchange – totalled almost $1,200 million, 4 per cent higher than twelve months earlier.

Permanent Building Societies recovered quickly from the financial stringency of 1974 and their liabilities to the public rose very strongly throughout 1975. This high level of intake allowed societies to restore liquidity and during the March quarter of 1975 lending again began expanding rapidly. The rate of new loan approvals regained the peak of early 1973 by the June quarter and continued rising strongly. The net intake of withdrawable funds was at record levels in the September quarter, but slowed in the December quarter following adjustments downwards of societies' interest rates for inward funds in most States during September/October. With the introduction of the Australian Savings Bond and with their borrowing rates mostly fairly finely pitched, there was a net outflow of withdrawable funds of societies throughout Australia of $36 million in February, including a fall of $63 million for New South Wales societies. In some States, including New South Wales, societies adjusted their rates to more competitive levels.

In March, several societies in Queensland were suspended by the State authorities pending investigation of their affairs; withdrawable funds in that State fell by $138 million over the month and, with net outflows also in most other States, the fall for Australia was $174 million. Early in April, the Queensland Government took a number of steps, including approval of higher interest rates, announcement of arrangements to set up a contingency fund, and a decision to merge five suspended societies into a new society backed by the Queensland State Government Insurance Office. The general outflow of funds did not continue; for Australia as a whole in the June quarter, with financial markets seasonally tight, there was a modest increase in the level of societies' withdrawable funds.

By the end of 1975, societies had built up their average level of assets other than housing loans to more than 20 per cent of withdrawable funds; this was generally higher than the average level of most years prior to 1975. Despite the fall in withdrawable funds, societies in most States continued approving new housing loans – although at a much reduced pace in the June quarter – during the second half of 1975/6.

In recent years Life Offices have grown less rapidly than most other major financial institutions. Factors in this presumably include taxation changes and the difficulty of quickly lifting the average return on existing long term assets. New policies have sold less readily, and, with the slowing of net income from premiums, earnings on investments have accounted for an increasing proportion of the overall growth in life office assets. In 1975/6, a substantial component of the expansion in life office balance sheets reflected increased investment in real estate; holdings of Commonwealth Government securities rose about 10 per cent to over $2 billion; much the same as the rate of growth in total assets.

Total assets of Pastoral Finance Companies at end March 1976 were $1,036 million; they showed little net change over the two preceding years. Following a steady decline over 1974/5, rural advances outstanding showed little net change in 1975/6; at the end of May they were $276 million.

Financial Corporations Act 1974

Following the passing of the Financial Corporations Act certain financial corporations were obliged to register with the Reserve Bank. The Act provides for the Treasurer, on advice from the Bank, to group corporations into categories. In all, 690 corporations have been placed in categories, which broadly correspond to the generally recognised existing major groupings in the financial sector. Full details were published in the Australian Government Gazette in October 1975 (and the categories were described in the Bank's “Statistical Bulletin” for October). Because their activities were of minor importance in terms of the aims of the legislation, a further 266 corporations were granted exemptions from its provisions; the exemptions are subject to periodic review.

On 20 February, the Treasurer announced the membership of seven advisory committees corresponding to the major categories of corporations registered under the Act, to advise him on matters to be included in any regulations made under the Act and on the operation of the legislation generally. On 27 May, the Financial Corporations (Statistics) Regulations were proclaimed. These provide for the monthly collection of a wide range of statistics from the larger registered corporations (those with assets over $5 million, other than retailers); first statistical collections are for July 1976. Regulations providing for less frequent collections from other corporations and supplementary information from larger corporations will be proclaimed at a later date.