A bank reconciliation statement compares a personal bank account balance to the bank's records to uncover any discrepancies. Since timing differences can cause normal discrepancies between account balances, reconciliation determines if differences are due to error. A typical net interest margin for American banks in the 21st century ranges from 3 to 4%, which is the difference between interest paid and received adjusted for interest-generating assets. For example, if a bank issued $100M in loans earning $5.5M in interest while paying $2.5M in interest on deposits, its net interest margin would be 3%.