Serving In A Country Branch

As the small country offices do not employ messengers or porters the duties performed in the cities by those functionaries fall to the new junior. He is expected to bring the big ledgers and other books out of the vault in the mornings, and to place them in their stations for the day; the mail delivery and despatching is his to perform; the copying letter books are in his charge; he must copy, address envelopes for, close, stamp, and make a record of all letters sent out. He is telephone and messenger boy, and has the collections to handle. The bulk of the mail received every day consists of drafts, notes, cheques, etc., sent to the branch by other branches, or by other banks, for collection. Some, such as cheques, have only to be charged to customers' accounts or presented at other local banks. Some, again, among them being notes and accepted bills, are to be recorded merely in the proper books and held for maturity. But there are always a number of items requiring to be presented for acceptance to business men in town. These the junior must present, and he is responsible for them. His first experience with them is apt to be confusing and perhaps a little terrifying. The drafts have instructions attached: "No protest," "No protest for non-acceptance," "Hold for arrival of goods," etc., those demanding most respect being the peremptory documents subject to protest from the beginning.

These last are very few, and are singled out for special attention, the accountant or some other superior officer taking note of them and following their course with a watchful eye.

The Collection Department

The collections form one of the important departments of banking. All the bills and other items held by the bank are divided into two classes - those belonging to the bank, and those belonging to other parties. The bills discounted, including cash items and the cash, constitute the bulk of the one, while the collections and items for safe-keeping form the major part of the other. With regard to the bills held for collection, the bank has no property rights in them; it is merely an agent for the rightful owners. The collections may come to it from regular or occasional customers in its own locality, or from its correspondents in other places. Almost any kind of document calling for the payment of money may be handed to the bank for collection. It is careful in every instance to assume no responsibility except what the law places on agents or collectors. The commissions to be paid for its services depend upon the nature of the transactions necessary to effect the collection. The bank is under no obligation to undertake the collection of any particular bill or bills.

Of the bills lodged for collection by local customers, some may have been placed that way because the bank did not consider them good enough to discount. But most of them are so placed because the owners do not wish to have them discounted. They may be notes made by parties resident in the locality, and payable at the bank itself, or at some other bank in the town, or they may be drafts drawn on parties living at some other place.

At most bank branches the majority of the collections received come through the mails from correspondents or other branches. These are mostly drafts drawn on local business men by wholesalers or manufacturers in the distributing and manufacturing centres. Or they may be notes sent away by local tradesmen to their outside creditors. The parties drawing the drafts, or owning the notes, place them in their own banks, maybe for discount and maybe for collection, but generally the former. These banks forward them, for collection on their own account, to their regular correspondents in the various towns and cities.

Upon acceptance of a collection, the bank receiving it becomes responsible to the owner for its safekeeping, for its due presentment at the place of domicile, for holding recourse against all parties signing or endorsing it; and it must account properly to the owner for all proceeds collected. Immediately upon their receipt, bills for collection are entered in the "collection register." The purpose of this book is to furnish a complete record of every collection held. Where a considerable number of both kinds of bills are received, two books are kept, one being for "local" and the other for "remitted" bills. Each bill is identified by its number in the register. Some distinguishing letters, such as "C," "B.C.," "B.C.R.," standing for "Collection," "Bill for Collection," "Bill for Collection Remitted," usually are prefixed to the numbers to aid in identification.