The Juniors

Every city office has a number of juniors. They are being taken on all the time, trained as speedily as possible, and put into the several departments or sent out to the branches.

Space will hardly permit a detailed description of all the departments of a city branch. The principle of working all of them is the same as in the country. It will suffice to describe how the principal departments are subdivided.

Division Of Current Account Ledgers

The collection department needs no description beyond what has already been given. When the current accounts are divided among two or more ledgers, the division is made according to the names of accounts arranged in alphabetical order. One ledger will be styled "A to G," and will contain all the accounts beginning with those letters; another will be "H to N," and a third "O to Z." The letters may vary, as it is aimed to have an even distribution of the work. Each ledger must have its special supplementary cash book, containing the record of all the transactions passed through it. The totals of these supplementary books are carried each day into the general cash book. There is an account in the general ledger for each current account ledger. A great deal more certifying or accepting cheques has to be done in a city office. The ledger keepers have to be more on the alert for forgeries and fraud of one kind and another.

The discount department also is divided into parts, according to the amount of work to be done. There may be two, three or more discount registers-one being devoted to each important class of loans and discounts.

The Tellers

The tellers' positions in the big offices are responsible and important. There will be several tellers, all of them probably handling heavy sums in cash. They have to be constantly on the watch for frauds, as there is more of that meditated and attempted in the cities than in the country. It would be largely a repetition to describe their duties, but the opportunity can be taken to explain the working of the clearing house, which is an institution peculiar to the cities.

The Clearing House

It has been explained how, every day, in the country, the customers of the bank bring to it in their deposits cheques on, and notes of, other banks; and how the teller sorts out the items that are obligations of other banks in town, and sends to each one its own at the beginning of the next day; and how he despatches his "sundry" notes, or notes of banks not represented in town, to the central offices for redemption. The same process goes on daily in the cities. The depositors bring in notes of other banks and cheques on other banks in their deposits. In the principal cities every bank in the country is represented by a branch or by a redemption agent, so practically everything in the way of bank notes can be cleared daily. Then, every day's mail and express bring from the branches and correspondents a large number of cheques on other banks, and a number of parcels of other banks' notes. When everything has been sorted and the deposits for the other banks all prepared for sending out there will be, perhaps, seventeen or more parcels. Before the clearing house was instituted these parcels had to be sent, each one to the bank it was intended for, and each other bank would have to send its deposit in exchange; after the seventeen exchanges were effected every bank would have to settle probably seventeen differences per day-one with each of the other institutions. Under the clearing house system the parcels are all sent to the clearing house, or place appointed for the exchange of parcels. Each parcel will have pinned to it a ticket stating the amount of the contents and the name of the bank it is intended for. The clearing clerk sent out by the bank will bear with him a sheet containing a list of the amounts sent by his bank to the respective other banks, the name of each bank being set opposite its amount. These are added together; the total represents the bank's clearing for the day. Arrived at the clearing house, there will be seen a circular row of eighteen compartments or boxes, each compartment bearing the name of a bank, and giving room for one man. The clearing clerks take possession of the compartments belonging to their respective banks, and the messengers or clerks sent to accompany them begin their rounds. Each one in succession calls at every compartment and delivers the parcel for that bank. As he does so, with each parcel he presents the clearing sheet, and takes upon it the initial of the clerk receiving it. When the clerk has gone the rounds he will have divested himself of all his parcels and will have on the clearing sheet the receipt of an accredited representative of each bank.

In the meantime the clearing clerk will have been receiving the parcels delivered by each one of the other banks. When all are received he enters the amount shown by the ticket attached to each one on another sheet, opposite the name of the bank from which it was received. When all are entered, the items are added and the total represents what the bank must give credit for. The difference between this and the total of its clearing sheet represents the balance it will have to pay or receive at the clearing bank.