“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170v)
I’ll spare you the
details of CeeCee’s observation of the branch but for those who’ve been
following this tome for a while pretty much know where the problem lay…
Jerry, the branch manager. I let CeeCee go over her notes with me before
saying anything. With the branch my responsibility I knew it would come
back on me. When I finally responded I didn’t dispute anything she had
noted but told her that my hands had been tied from really doing
anything about Jerry by the Board of Trustees. That seemed to interest
her and asked me for examples. Both Bret and I had been keeping notes on
Jerry and I proceeded to get my file for her. She read a few, asked to
keep it and then suggested that it was time to quit. Having her read
some of the notes was initially uplifting but… thinking back to having
been called into the office of Bert (the president) and told pretty much
that I’d have to live with Jerry and his faults gave me pause. My
answer was to ask if we could chat “off the record”. Her response, and I
remember this vividly, was a smile… and then a verbal OK. I told her
that I had the feeling that there was some hidden reason why Jerry had
been hired and why, even with all the things noted in the folder, that he was still there. I also told her of my
warning from Bert. Looking at her face didn’t convey any message at all
but I still had the sense that she understood my position and she’d use the
information in the folder judiciously. We then got up and I remember
shaking her hand and also taking a deep breath.
We’d been sitting
at the table that had been CeeCee’s work area. I’d heard my phone ring a
few times and, after glancing at my watch, assumed it was Elle
wondering why I hadn’t called to let her know I’d be late. Not wanting
to interrupt our conversation I'd just let it ring. After letting her
out the back door I went back to my desk to get my things... and the
phone rang again. I was all set to give Elle my excuse for not calling
when I realized it was Lynda. There were very few people who knew the
direct dial number for my desk after hours and Lynda was one. The last
time we’d spoken I sort of complained that with the examiners there I’d
probably be there until 6pm. She called to tell me that Ruthe’s parents
had returned from Connecticut with her kids and Ruthe was now living
with them. Her plan was to visit her over the weekend and she thought
I’d like to know how things stood. Actually, it was a good time for that
news. Something to take my mind off the examination and the hoards of
depositors who’d be descending on the bank in the morning.
Ah
yes… the morning. I arrived early and was surprised to see CeeCee at her
work area. She seemed to be quite busy so decided to wait to see how
she felt. I really had thought a trip to the emergency room the night
before would’ve been wise but she’d declined. As soon as the doors
opened Trish, Bret and I were ‘attacked’ by depositors wanting to know
why the interest rate on their savings was so low. Some even showed ads
with higher rates. There was a simple answer but it was (and is) hard to
explain. We’d been asked from time to time about it and I’d made up a
little flyer to hand out to help with the explanation. This is pretty
much what it said…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The basic way
banks make money is to charge interest on the loans they make. But, to
get the money to loan they have to pay people to deposit their money in
the bank. There is a thing called ‘usury’ and it has to do with how much
interest can legally be charged on a loan. Each state sets their own
usury rate and for our state it is extremely low… 6 percent. For the
bank to be profitable there has to be a ‘spread’ between what it pays
the depositor and what it can make on the loan. One percent is the
standard so the interest rate the bank pays is 5%.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A
while back I’d written about a salesman friend who was starting a
newsletter that would list the highest rates of interest that depositors
could get throughout the US. In the course of a year there had been
many articles written in financial sections of newspapers about high
interest rates and it was obvious that the ‘locals’ were now getting
wind of it. The problem for the three of us was the time it took to do
the explaining. Before we knew it the noon siren was blowing. I’d not
paid any attention to CeeCee and when I finally had a chance asked
Joanie if she’d seen her. She didn’t know where she was and I didn’t
have the time to go look for her. I knew the Board’s audit committee was
meeting with her at 1pm and I really wanted to get an indication of
what she was going to do with the material I’d given her on Jerry.
Since
I wanted to catch up with CeeCee before her meeting I decided to play
the role of martyr and forego my lunch so Trish and Bret could get a
bite to eat. When 1pm, the scheduled time for the meeting, approached I
still hadn’t seen CeeCee but there was nothing I could do about it. I
saw the chairman of the committee walk across the lobby quickly followed
by a couple of other Trustees. It was time for another deep breath.
When 3pm arrived there were still quite a few people in the lobby. All
in all, it had been an uneventful day as there were very few disruptions
with data transmission. I went back to speak to Lorie to get a
preliminary indication of net deposit flows. Without blinking an eye she
responded that a lot of money had been withdrawn. I thought back to the
people I’d talked with about rates and hadn’t had but a few who were
dissatisfied enough to threaten to withdraw their mony so wondered why
the outflow. I was puzzling over that when I saw CeeCee come down the
back stairs from the Boardroom. As I approached she sort of stopped me
by saying she had to leave. She went over to the table she’d been
working at, swept the papers still on it off and into her briefcase and
headed for the coat room. In less than two minutes she was gone… and I
was worried.
What added to my concern was that I hadn’t seen any
of the audit committee members come down from the Boardroom. CeeCee had
told me the night before that the operations area (my responsibility)
was in good shape so I figured there had to be a problem somewhere else.
Hobie was the corporate secretary but only took minutes for the full
Board meetings and the mortgage committee meetings so I knew I couldn’t
go to him to find out what had taken place. When it got to be close to
4pm I saw him wander by Trish’s desk so followed him into the work area.
I really didn’t know what to say but I needn’t have worried about it.
It was Hobie who made the comment… “I knew it would be a tough one…” I
knew what he was referring to but played like I didn’t. He was nice
about answering when he said that anytime there was a change in the lead
examiner during an on-going audit the replacement was usually a no
nonsense type who dug into every file and was relentless until he found
something. Hearing him say that reminded me of when I worked for the
County Civil Service Commission where we were told to always have an
obvious (but minor) violation so the auditor in charge could write
something up and be ‘off the hook’. I remember it worked for the one
audit that took place when I was there. But that was a different time
and a different place.
To be continued…
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