BANK "BOOKIES" WHO DEAL IN MILLIONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 7

BANK "BOOKIES" WHO DEAL IN MILLIONS.

(By Max Rittenberg). Most people would imagine the inside of the city headquarters of one of our great banks as a place of immense dignity, cathedral calm, soft footfalls on pile carpets, and the "atmosphere" which is suggested by a famous picture of Britain's twenty-four most decorous directors seated round an immense board-room table, with some mere underlings of joint general managers standing respectfully in the background. This may apply to a boardroom itself, but the impression would be rudely shattered by a glance into the private wires leading direct to the other change transactions are carried out. Hero is a jungle of telephones—private wires leading direct to tht other banks of the "Big Five," to the leading foreign banks, and to certain important dealers in foreign exchange. Some young men hang all day long over the telephones and the rapid mechanical calculators. They are men of a type which has sprung up since the war —a new type in banking—and their general characteristics are the same in France, Germany. Holland, Switzerland or America, whereever hectic foreign exchange transactions are carried through. They are cat-like in mind, accustomed to instant decisions on buying and selling. They have a "poker voice" over the 'phone, and their mode of speech is apt to be reminiscent of "The Ring."' A telephone bell "rings. One of the young men jumps to.Jti : "Want a million francs? Wait ytt sec." His own "book" in francs is filled for the moment. But perhaps he can secure them from some other bank. Instantly he plugs into a private wire: "Billy Sell francs? million. . . Forty-seven. . . . Hold a sec." Back he plugs into the original connection : "Offer a million at seven thirty-seven." Decisions of buying and selling are made with lightning rapidity. They have to be. This young man has the possibility of -making (or losing) a bucketful of money for his bank inside a week, depending on his judgment in seizing opportunities and his cleverness in "squarring his book" in francs, in marks, in kronen, and whatnot. In marks, especially, he wants to "square up" every day, because London is not the determining centre of the world-price. The price of marks is "made" in New York and Amsterdam, where the dealings arc heaviest and speculation most hectic. He must not be caught by a squall from New York, where dealing continue for five hours later than London. The bank "bookie" is not free, however, to speculate in millions as be likes. His "books" have to balance up daily, and meet the scrutiny of the level-headed men who are responsible to the public for the great sums of money entrusted to the great banks.