Big Bank Theory

I rarely hear it nowadays but an important question that was always asked by children to their peers without embarassment or reserve was "What does your dad do?".

The answers would be very different today to the stock responses of, say, the 1970's when employment would include steel worker, heavy engineer, shipbuilder, aircraft technician and various trades in the automotive industry. You could easily replace those in the current economy with Call centre operative, training officer, fund raiser and permanent student.

I was extremely proud to say that my Father was a Bank Manager.

He had joined Lloyds Bank at aged 15, in the Post War Years,  and took early retirement at 55 having worked his way up to Bank Manager in a succession of small town branches.

I can say that we moved house with my Father's job on average every four years and, freakishly, in alphabetical order of places.

In my Father's time a Bank Manager was a most respected position in any town. Certainly on a par with the Doctor and Priest being held in high esteem as guardian of the financial interests of the customers as much as the latter professions in health and faith.

It was a responsible role.

Personal Finances were just that, a matter to be discussed in a discreet and sensitive way whether it involved a request for a loan, an extension of an overdraft or setting up an account. Customers who were prudent and frugal in paying in regularly and saving could be rewarded with consideration for a mortgage at a time when home ownership was quite rare. It was a big commitment and even when a few hundred pounds could buy a decent brand new house there would be much soul searching over taking on such a debt burden. My Father had a quiet and reassuring nature which gave customers confidence in themselves.

We were well used to his prolonged silences but knew that he was just thinking through all of the options and that wise counsel would prevail. He had impeccable judgement of money propositions and those making them.

I would be taken along on some appointments with him, many at weekends as Bank Managers were like Public Servants, on call at anytime to deal with requests and problems of a financial nature. I was the only one in my schoolroom to have been on a fishing trawler, to an Auction Sale and to have swum in a private swimming pool on an invitation from a farming customer.

Visits to my Father's bank branch were thrilling when I was young.

It was a traditional Bank within a dressed stone edifice bearing a date stone from 1910 and with high entrance steps up into a vaulted, high ceilinged banking hall.

Counter Staff knew everyone who came into the bank from their long serving employment and that constancy was reflected in the loyalty of customers over successive generations. As well as holding court from his office my Father was in demand in the community and his Financial experience and acumen proved useful to the Junior Chamber of Commerce, various Charitable concerns and organisations.

I benefitted no-end from being the son of a Bank Manager in terms of basking in reflected respect and consequently had to behave responsibly or at least not get caught when doing anything ill-judged.

The Bank Manager held a special position in their town and suburban branches. We, as a family, were briefed on what to do if taken hostage by criminals looking to get into the vault which I found exciting if not a bit scary.

Over his four decades of service to the same bank my Father saw the onset of changes in practice and in particular the introduction of technology such as automated cash machines, centralised decision making, call centres, credit scoring and the pressures to cross sell life insurance and other financial services under the banner of retail banking.

These non-core activities did not sit well with him. He was not at all averse to progress but could see that the role of a Bank Manager was being phased out.

I think that his early retirement in the early 1990's was at exactly the right time for him to get out of banking even though it was a profession that he had loved.

He may not  recognise what passes for a High Street Banking Hall today.

You might be mistaken for thinking that you have wandered into a bistro, pub or coffee shop with the brash, open plan nature of a typical 21st century branch. There are no counter positions, rather an array of self service machines to pay in or withdraw and with bank staff or colleagues as they are referred to acting as meeters and greeters. The part played by a traditional Bank Manager is no longer discernible.

The merits of a specific individual, like my Father, have been firmly supplanted by standardisation of products and services, a bit like the McDonalds fast food model giving the same experience in whatever branch you find yourself drawn in to.

Gone is the personal approach and the level of trust that comes with eye to eye contact. We do, granted, swap allegiance to banks with the same frequency as say changing utility suppliers but mainly because we have not been encouraged to be loyal by receiving good service.

Perhaps the banking crisis of 2008 and beyond may have been avoided or mitigated under the old, well proven system. We cannot say for sure but the decision makers in the banking industry are, I have no doubt, now thinking that their intentional  diminishing of the importance of the local Bank Manager was a huge error of judgement.