One other element in foreign methods which distinctly differentiates them from those of the United States is seen in the fact that in Europe banking has become a highly professionalized occupation. In the United States it has until recently been looked upon rather as a business. The distinction may seem at first sight to be one of secondary importance or an observation which is of interest rather from the broad general standpoint than from the point of view of actual organization of banking. It, however, relates to a condition of affairs which is of considerably more inclusive character than would thus be suggested. The banking personnel of the United States is recruited after methods running very closely parallel to those which obtain in connection with its banking organization. As has elsewhere been seen, however, in European countries - indeed, in almost all foreign countries - the establishment of a new bank is looked upon as an undertaking of very great moment to the community and as deserving in some countries of special authorization by the legislature, while in others it is so surrounded with difficulties of one sort or another that the number of banks increases very slowly. In the United States, as we have seen, however, the object of the law has been that of encouraging the growth of small banks. This is reflected in the fact that a single year may see the organization of hundreds of such institutions. In the national banking system alone the number of banks organized during the year 1920 was about 300. If the number organized under state laws were to be added, the total figure would probably come to double that which has just been given. It need hardly be said that with so many banks coming into existence it is difficult to obtain a trained and well-equipped personnel.

The personnel is, therefore, recruited for the most part from commercial businesses. A few employees of the older banks are engaged to train the personnel of the new institution. The result is to establish in many banks a rather unsatisfactory and unprofessional style of management. Accounting and bookkeeping methods are by no means uniform, and while much has been done by the Comptroller of the Currency and the several superintendents of banking to introduce uniformity of practice by enforcing the laws as to maintenance of reserves on hand, of paper discounted, and the like, such efforts have been successful only in a rather vague way. It is almost necessarily true that great differences of practice and great differences in character of personnel obtain between one of the larger city banks and the bank of $25,000 capital in the South and West.

The state of things thus indicated is naturally cor relative with a condition in which promotion is by no means steady or assured. Employees of capacity and ability usually make their way in all institutions, but the rank and file of the personnel of the ordinary bank may or may not be steadily advanced as experience and training seem to warrant, and in any case may find it hard to get outside their local community. The outcome of this is a rather rapid transference of employees from banking institutions to business houses, followed, of course, by the recruiting of bank staffs from outside employment as circumstances demand or require. While there is some interchange of banking employees between institutions of different cities, the amount of it is relatively small. An able officer of a country bank is likely to be a man of distinction in his community, and eventually may receive an offer from an institution in some city, neighboring or otherwise, which gives him a larger field for his activity.

It often happens, however, that such openings come to bankers on the strength of their business-getting capacity rather than on the basis of skill and quick judgment in the management of banking affairs. So much may be noted by way of background for a brief sketch of foreign practice. In the large foreign bank with many branches the endeavor is made to establish a regular basis of promotion so that men are advanced from grade to grade with corresponding increases of salary as their merits seem to require. This is rendered possible by the existence of the branch system, which permits constant training in management and gives opportunity for the testing of capable members of the banking staff by placing them in charge of independent offices where they are able to show their ability. Entrance into a banking staff thus means entrance into a professional occupation which holds out a definite career for the future, and in which advancement, while 20 not rapid and often not very remunerative, is comparatively certain. The result of this method of organization is to establish a much more rigid standard of professional conduct, or ethics, in banking than that which exists in the United States, where, as already remarked, banking is still for the most part on a basis of business rather than of professional ethics. There is a much smaller amount of shifting between banking staffs and those of business houses in such a country as England than there is in the United States, and a greater disposition on the part of business houses to follow the advice of the banks with which they deal than there is in this country.