The Safe Way-Personal Delivery By Manager

The only safe way of doing this business, and the way that the best bankers do it, is for the manager himself to deliver the bills accepted for discount to the discount clerk. There are, of course, plenty of customers who could be trusted with the bills after they were initialled, but the important point is to have a definite practice and then to adhere to it. If the bills are handed back to some customers and not to others, the discount clerk would not be able so surely to stop a forged initial; he most certainly would if the invariable custom was for the manager himself to deliver the bills into his hands.

In the larger branches the manager's office is fitted with electric call bells connecting with the desks of the particular officers he most frequently desires to attend him. The discount clerk being one of them, it is a simple matter to press his button, and, on his appearance, to deliver into his hands the paper to be discounted, to instruct him what is to be done with the proceeds, and to assure him of the identity of the party who is to get the credit or the cash. Thus the element of risk in this connection is practically eliminated. In the smaller offices, where no electric system exists, the manager may nevertheless call the discount clerk into his room, by word of mouth, or by some device, or, if his staff be small, he may accompany the customer to the discount desk, and there make the desired personal delivery of the paper and of the instructions.

Casual And Regular Discounts

During the course of the day there will be two classes of transactions presented at the discount desk: the bills taken from the regular customers of the branch, and those taken from casual or occasional customers. The former usually desire to have the proceeds of their discounts credited in their current accounts. Only occasionally do they wish to know, on the instant, the amount that will be credited. Most of their bills can, therefore, be placed in a clip or file and calculations made at the end of the day or in a quiet spell during the day. A regular customer is usually quite satisfied if the amount of his proceeds is entered in his pass book when he comes to the bank next day. But there are nearly always some discounting customers, who, not having accounts with the bank, or wanting cash for special purposes, desire to have the proceeds of their bills paid them in money. With the bills they offer it is necessary to deal at once. The first thing to do is to carefully read each bill. It is to become the property of the bank, and in the event of its not being paid at maturity it may have to form the basis of an action at law, brought by the bank against the delinquent parties to it. Therefore, care has to be exercised to see that each bill is perfectly formal and legal on its being taken. The bill must be dated, the place of its execution, the day of the month and the year must also be clearly expressed. Then the term, On demand, At sight, so many days or months after date, or after sight, must be given. Next, the payee must be named (it must be payable to some individual, firm, or corporation), and it must have an accessible place of domicile-be drawn payable at some place where presentment can be made. The amount must be written in. If it is a draft, the drawee's name and place of residence are required, and the drawer's signature; if a note, the maker's signature. Finally, it must bear the payee's endorsement in a form identical with his name as written in the body of the bill. Each bill must be free from alteration or erasure, either of which might prevent the bank from enforcing collection.