E X- CIA AGENT TURNED BANKER CHALLENGED BY DOUBTFULL LOAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000400460023-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: May 19, 1958
• Content Type: NSPR

BO TON (Mass.) MAY 1 9 1956
HE ALD
Cir .: M. Sa.gi#,id - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP7
S. 261,421
prom. -? -
Page Pag 1?Q?, ktill
CPYRGHT
;titaut cashier. he isWeart of Ban mg
7 la pil?n r user The executive
Po'un'ds Pavement like a Salesman 'post bi` .as additional responsibili-I Ward's day in the South Station
__ __ ,)branch '(staffed by '22 men and
The U. S. Bureau of Labor Sta-ling accounts; handling loan appli-
the average baniring Cations, safe deposit box rentals,,'
r
ti
s
cs
of
"? "'6 ' "` b
Ac "`)($3 England is around $60 a week
100 a year). The American loans, he says. A printed. form
hallp.nand b y bli Doubtful Le" Bankers Association, says officers' helps^get^,in~formation onAincome,
e.d the people behind them: The articles appear on successive plus puss,u,e has to make a personal appraisal
ABA estimates a typical salary
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CPYRUHTyB?i He makes a habit of never
By JUAN CAMERON for a banker with 10 years experi-f saying no fight 'off when he
"All ~,n nAf% -A
ri the 0 Q eCOrOllS won 5T 1INT1101197', 4
in
in eating a ing cen- "I'm a relative neophyte
staged in marble rooms guarded by heavily ,grilled tern like Balton. this business, but I'm more apt
ht have caused to say 'let's see" about doubt-
windows, banker Hugh C. Ward.mig , Pay Is Better ful cases, then see how I might
eyebrows to arch. In recent years, banking, in 1 be able to justify it," Ward
.* part to meet, the competition points opt.
for the best brains graduating 're Some not lending customers our don own mono-
the realize
To' find business for his Boston bank today, Ward pounds from school sand colleges, we
has abut money given us to invest and,
the pavement like any salesman. He scours his district for sharply upgraded pay. Today Handle wisely.. Thus we keep in
',customers. Sometimes he knocks on a door, introduces himself, a medians starting salary for a the front of our minds ability to
college g-4nduate is estimated ? ?
and gives a sales pitch for his bank. between $3900 and $4800, with (repay, he says.
"-The era has gone," says the 34-year-old Ward, "when bank- business school graduates, engi- Ward recalls the largest sum
1 * . neers, geologists and other sue he's ever loaned is.$15,000.
1 cialists drawing up to $6000 in He hasn't yet made a bad loan,
''. ern can sit in their offices and wait for business to come to them. the larger cities. (but notes every credit . man has
~, De, do,gdp?Qr-tq-door selling to find our customers today:' Ward, a native Bostonian, en-)to turn expect sour; two and or to three receive loans to
some
"'" ~.; Sometimes Ward, like any 'tered banking five years ago afterlsharp comments from his boss
(
salesman, suffers a rebuff when.ia lengthy stint in government in-
as a result.
his' pras~eet refuses to see him telligence.
?
og~c~dtLaiing from Yale in,! How Friendly,
"But I' find most people like to 11948, Ward . rei.diiibd' to k intelli-
talk to bankers. Why? i suppose Bence workin?wh1cb. he., served
in Burman , during World War II
money," he jokes. In five years with the Contra
;Merchants National Bank of Bos- crack analyst on Southeast Asia.
ton, Ward represents part of the He quit when he married Miss
43,000 New England men and Diana Goss of Middlebury, Conn.
in 1953. "It:q.a 1vk]ldeTftll,.career
women who are working in bank-.forasingle? man, but. if, you're!
I"Biggest Josh' 4Hugh III, 4, and Jared IT.,
and live in a Victorian house ii]-
"Our biggest job today is 'Hamilton.
says. "We must keep increas' sometimes I play some golf, go
ing our deposits and number of to the beach or fish," lie says.
customers to meet rising over- Some weekends the Wards drive
head and operating costs." their 1958 Plymouth station wag- 'which makes it more demanding.
Three main sources provide on to, visit the family in Con-
'
'funds for loans. necticut or to bake Sunapee
Seventy-five percent of a bank's for a summer weekend. "We
customers are referred by present ? don't get away In the summer,
customers who are enthusiastic partly because we can't farm
Iabout their treatment. Old sus the children, out with their
tomers provide 50 to 60 percent of; grandparents any longer,"? he
a ? bank's deposit growth. says.
A second major source is the Ward depends on the Boston &
customer who walks into the Maine Railroad and gripes about
South h station branch office. He the constantly shifting schedules
Ward says bankers have only
one thing to offer customers-
service.
"You can't be high pressured
about an intangible thing like
service as you would be about
toothpaste or shoe polish," he
notes. "But, for instance, if a
customer asks its to have sev-
eral thousand dollars in small
bills-and change to be used in
his business ready at a certain
time, it's important to be ready.
"I find customers are becoming
ore and more conscious that well
anks can sell only service; and
And then, you
re leading with all`
kinds of people, in all walks 'of
life." .
The security-trained Ward points'
to his glass walled branch,
stripped of window and teller cage'
bars, painted in warm colors and
wonders whether the "friendly
hank" ' idea hasn't gone far
may ave seen an advertisement and 6ervaee, enough.
and found the branch location "It seems with every new time-
convenient. table, the early trains get earlier,
The third source is salesman- the late trains later-the result,
r t r t
hi i like wand. s~ yI
Sanitized - p ica l i~ra aFI t ~ A 0004004.60023-9
by how much new business I can on the 8:04 and returns on the.11 % generate." - . .. - - , ?' 5:19. i