- The Banker of the Future (Mr: Sleek is Director
of Stulies to the Institute of Bankers.) To'transmute the bank clerk into 'a banker, the routine worker into the thinking and far-seeing bank chief, is mainly a 'task- for the banks theinselVes; trough their efforts may, be usefully .supplemented - by c educational bodies such as the Institute of Bankers. Banks them- selves must take the main responsibility • for providing themselves with a succession of good managers and general managers,- and one wonders- whether all of them tollY realize the necessity of their task, and with what success they are carrying it out. The type of man required to conduct the operations of our.huge banking Institutions. must be -Oen higher as time goes on. Is the present Method of equipping the more intelligent bank clerks for the discharge, later on, of the higher duties of their business all that can be desired 7 At pretent there is little " method " in the matter. In most cases, when a man emerges fibm the rank and file to the top, it is not as 'a result of training by his bank, but of his own individual effort and initiative: A youth-enters a bapk, and, Whatever his ability or infellectual capacity, he is 'for a number of years tied:down to routine work. If he lilts exceptional ability, in many instanceS it receives froni his birak, in the earlier 'an -es Of &Liver, little recognition-lar-eneourageraentrz- ably7.-his Salary is governed by a " scale," and that scale is, for the purefy routine worker, so liberal as compared with the remunera- tion of the routine worker in other businesses,-that it appears to leave little surplus towards the financial recog- nition of exceptional merit. Eventually, such a man gets his chance. Promotion comes, sometimes rapidly, but the long years spent in work which is largely mechanical have left their mark on him. True, he must, for his own • sake as well as for that of his bank, " go through the mill." . The radical fault in many banks' training of their clerks, : if it can be called training, is that as a rule they keep the ' very able men—the future manager, inspector, and general manager—far too long at the mill. By all means let-such men learn the ordinary work of their bank. They will be all the better for it. But in banking the really piomising man is usually kept on routine tasks too long. He should have an opportunity of performing them, but' should not be kept at them for an indefinite time. To keep your more brilliant Men writing up pass-books or" writing-up or checking ledgers for years tends not only to kill such initiative as they may possess, but is a waste of good material from the standpoint of the bank. Really able men ,are scarce enough in banking, as in • other busidessies:- When- found, -their powers shoukl bb developed and encouraged, not deadened by too long a spell of routine. Some banks recognize this. Their method is to instruct their - travelling inspectors and -district • managers or directors to report specially to Head Office the case of any youth of, say, five to ten years' service in any area of the bank's operations who gives evidence of special ability and promise. Such youths, when found, are transferred to Headquarters on trial for a couple of months or so and placed with a good man in some administrative department, where they are kept under special observa- tion. If they fulfil the expectations raised by the in- spector's or district manager's report, they are retained on the staff of the administrative department, sent out on the inspection staff for a time, told off to relieve managers and sub-managers in different areas, and given an insight into the 'central_ administration of the bank. The result of this process is that when an important and responsible post in the bank, either at a branch or at the Head Office,. becomes vacant, the bank can generally supply a man in the thirties or early forties who has had the requisite training and experience in the higher posts, and who is now given the opportunity of acquiring further experience which should qualify him for one of the highest administrative posts in his bank. The system in question is characterized by a quick discernment of special.ability and provides the able man with opportuni- ties of proving his ability and gaining further useful experience. Such a system might well be more generally adopted. Really able young men in banks are so few in number that when a bank has them it should, in its own interest, institute and keep working the machinery for discovering them, encouraging them, and giving them further scope. If,- like the characters in Dear Brutus, I had the opportunity of beginning life anew, and had again the same opportunities in a bank, a considerable part of my time would be devoted, so far as the staff side of my work was concerned, to improving and perfecting the methods of recognizing special ability and giving it an earlier opportunity of functioning. The general welfare of the staff, though of the greatest importance, would give me less concern. The staff organizations to which practically all the men now belong would see that that part of my duties was fully realized and adequately performed. My chief care would be for the exceptionally good men, the men of special ability and promise, because the staff organizations or guilds referred to are so largely occupied with the welfare of the men in general that they have not the time, as indeed they have not the. opportunity or the means, of looking after the seleetion and training of special cases. Much more might' be done than is being done within the banks, by those responsible for their management, to improve the general level of efficiency among the rank and file, especially by means of a more frequeneinterchange of duties among the members of their staffs, but this is not a part of my !present theme. I have to turn to the part which an organization like the Institute of Bankers may usefully play in the training of the banker of the future. It is a subordinate part, but a very important one.
The Institute of Bankers fulfils many functions in furtherance of the interests of bankers, but it is, in the main, an educational body ; one which, by means of lectures and classes, by the dissemination of educational literature of a technical nature, and by holding examina- tions and providing the means of preparing for such examinations, gives the bank clerk an opportunity of acquainting himself with the technicalities of his business and with the principles of economics and currency with- out which no man, whatever his ability and whatever experience he may have gained within- the walls of the bank, is fit to take a high administrative post in a bank and play his part in dealing with the complicated industrial and financial problems which will confront him.
There are still, in our banks, a few managers and higher officials who discourage members of their staffs from taking advantage of the opportunities of gaining technical knowledge by studying for the Diploma of the Institute. These are the men who arc heard to observe that " an ounce of practice is .worth a ton of theory." It is. But the object of the Institute of Bankers is, not to deprecate practice or efficiency in practice, but to add to practical efficiency a knowledge of the underlying theory. Here are two young fellows in a bank, both efficient in-the dis- charge of their duties. One studies for and obtains the certificate of the Institute. The other does not: To the bank, the man who has (through the Institute or other- wise) acquired a knowledge of technique, and who retains that knowledge and uses it in the course of his duties, is the more valuable. There are, of course, inefficient clerks who haVe passed banking examinations, and it is they who bring undeserved discredit- on the technical training of which the Institute examinations are .one, of the tests. But there are also many efficient young banking men who have increased their efficiency by availing themselves of the educational facilities provided by the Institute, and who have thereby increased both their chances of pro- motion and their usefulness to their bank. As between practice and theory it is a case of " This ought ye to do, and not to leave the other undone."
Sir Josiah Stamp has quite recently stated that in this country there has been "a grave hiatus between financial and industrial interests, and a common failure to co- ordinate banking and currency policy with industrial and wage interests." The training given inside a bank will never fill this gap. It must be filled up or bridged over by a diligent study of economic problems in general and currency problems in particular, and such study is encouraged and facilitated by the Institute of Bankers
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