​​​​George Marcou

When I started to work in the corporate sector, my first job was at the UK Head Office branch of a small international bank. 
 

The role was neither prestigious nor glamorous.   In fact the role involved calculating and handwriting or typing the kind of individual transactions that most comparable banks could perform automatically by selecting the right options on a computer screen.

 

As an operations clerk, I looked after 3 departments:  

 

Sterling Fixed Deposits 

Standing Orders

Direct Debits

 

Had the bank's computer system been modern rather than a 2nd or 3rd-hand ancient IBM, it could have handled all of the day-to-day transactions required, leaving me simply to take new instructions, manage and update existing instructions and look after customers.

 

Direct Debits and Credit Cards were concepts that didn't exist when the computer system was conceived and consequently, these transactions had to be entered manually, as did large volumes of transactions and standing order instructions, leaving the system to perform only the most basic instructions.

 

This meant that transactions had to be written up and checked before they were committed to the computer to be passed into customer and internal accounts.  

The transactions slips were literally either hand-wrtten in triplicate or, if your handwriting was not particularly neat, we had a several electric typewriters to produce these on. 

 

The days of the month that credit card payments needed to be made could be very hectic, with hundreds of part and full payments required to be committed to the computer system individually.  

 

All this potentially makes it appear that my fist coporate role was in a small independent bank in the 1970s rather than an international bank in 1995!

 

Accuracy, as you would expect was the highest priority and I learned some excellent habits while working to complete the high volume of transactions generated by these 3 departments.

Many of the transactions involved the transmission of funds to other banks in the UK and internationally. 

 

 

Due to the nature of the bank and its clients, there was a very high degree of customer interaction and international transactions.  Customers could literally walk through the front doors, past the cashiers booth and straight to the open-plan operations area.  Mine was one of the first desks that a customer would come to.  Unless they had an appointment or established contact at the bank, I would often be first to be approached with a new customer requirement or query.  

 

Depending on the customers individual preferences, these interactions could be quite technical and could be conducted in either English or Greek.

 

I learned how banking transactions work and gained deep insights by having to do everything manually and find the best way to accomplish the customer's goals. 

When you have an opportunity to get to know a system and can work it in this way, there is no mystery to it.  I was able to solve problems for clients very easily.

On several occasions, I was able to step in and avert possible disaster by following my client's transactions even after they left the bank and inform the receiving organisations as to where they had misplaced my client’s payments within their own accounts!

 

The head office for the bank's UK banking operations occupied the floors above the branch and I was able to spend time with the bank's management, legal, accounts, trading and IT departments.

 

The valuable experience, contacts and friends that I gained in this role continue to provide me with benefits today.

 

I still use these lessons to help on a regular enough basis to confirm that the experience was worth it.