Bring back the old fashioned bank manager!

Ah, nostalgia - it isn't what it used to be!

Perhaps one of our best pieces of business nostalgia is the old-fashioned manager'.

Presumably the mental image of a sort of benign version of Captain Mainwaring visiting or premises or perhaps playing a round of golf with a briefcase full of cash ready to hand over if he likes the cut of your jib.

I wasn't alive during WW2, so can't be sure whether Captain Mainwaring cut a realistic bank manager or not - he looks right though.

- I do know however that the biggest fallacy in the whole 'old fashioned bank manager' myth is the idea that they would give out loans based on a meeting and some chat.

Until the 1960 lending was a tightly regulated business. Whilst regulation on business lending was later fully relaxed it remained the case until well into the 1980s that a loan or overdraft was something that you applied for - the application itself would need to be supported with documentary evidence, personal commitment and probably additional security.

Whilst your bank manager had a say in the process, he did so against a backdrop of stringent rules and guidelines - and woe-betide him if he got it wrong!

The notion of 'forcing banks to lend' would have been laughable even in the '90s.

During the '70s - my school days, I distinctly remember friends moving around the country because their fathers were bank managers and moving was essential for career progression - so presumably the notion of the same face at the same desk was disappearing by then.

The big change came in the '90s when banks started to chase the big bucks and ambitious managers realised that time was far better spent schmoozing brokers and lawyers for a share in a multi million pound development syndicate than looking after local engineering firms who periodically need a bit of cashflow.


So - is it just nonsense?

Absolutely not.

What is nonsense is the notion that local lending is easy lending - in reality the easy money came about as a direct result of the banks' desire to systemise and centralise everything - coupled with insatiable greed for turnover. 

What localsation can offer is intelligent lending, as well as support, guidance and - the real litmus test of a good manager - the ability to turn a blind eye to short term blips with unauthorised overdrafts.

Test your manager - ask for £10,000 for 3 days..