But I Never Made a Loan

"You ought to write a book about it." The "it" is my involvement in banking since the end of World War II, and the suggestion comes from friends and colleagues as well as from assorted family members, doubtless weary of my stories. My usual response has been that I could not write credibly about the banking business without ever having been a banker. Of course, I have been writing and speaking about public policy issues in banking for many years, but bankers will understand my reservations in this instance. There is no greater divide in banking than that between those who have spent much of their careers deciding on the creditworthiness of potential borrowers and those who have not. Bank chief executive officers tend to come from the first group, not from the second. At least this was the way it was until very recently, when the barriers between banking and other financial businesses began to come down, but I expect it is still largely the case. Of the crucial assessments that could thwart the careers of potential bank presidents, there was never a more damning phrase than "but he never made a loan."