41.   Auditors since have concluded that the Central Bank may only turn over excess cash to the state, and not directly to private institutions, Dutch media reported Monday.

42.   By law, Social Security gives the excess cash to the Treasury Department and gets Treasury bills in return.

43.   It plans to increase the number of companies listed on the exchanges to soak up the excess cash chasing investment.

44.   So far, however, banks have been reluctant to take the bait, preferring instead to plow excess cash into government securities.

45.   The pension system trades its excess cash for Treasury bills, and if the cash is then spent it has no effect on Social Security itself.

46.   However, the repository for excess cash seems to reside increasingly in the home.

47.   But conversely, since returning cash to shareholders through share buybacks was less attractive now, companies might now use excess cash to fund acquisitions, they pointed out.

48.   Last week, Reuters said that its board was still considering practical ways in which it could best return excess cash to shareholders.

49.   On Tuesday, Barclays bank was the latest commercial heavyweight to unveil plans to soak up shares with excess cash.