CommunicationCommunicationJosh stood up in front of the crowd, ready to present his analysis of the recent drop in profits that our banking company had gone through and his views on how to decrease costs so we would get the money back. I listened attentively as he got started because as the Chief Finance Operator I needed to be on top of things. I had prepared a pen and notepad for the occasion too, so that I would be able to clarify any questions I had about his presentation. As he continued with his presentation I tried to keep an open mind and listen intently while he talked so that I understood his whole message and did not jump to any conclusions. When he started describing some cost saving methods I noticed he was gesturing more actively and facial expression indicated
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After about 100 minutes I told the company to call it off, “I know what I’m getting into…” and he sat down and presented the slides.
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So, what have you learned since you came with me to the end of the meeting?
You are aware that many companies are becoming more conservative and less dependent on central banking. Many of these initiatives are funded both by the private sector and by the government. They are all about giving up control over the people and businesses they want to work with, but they also give some political weight to the central bankers who are most active. If you are working for a company, for example, you may not be able to keep a central bank that will allow you to pay for services you need. The central banks in certain countries, like Brazil, have seen some of their customers lose interest in their banks.
That is why I felt the need to come to a working agreement that would allow the government that deals with our business and the central banks, like in the United States, to have influence over the bank. My understanding is that if we cannot agree on a final contract, then I need to work to make sure that they respect our work and that we’re respecting the people. And when there will be an opening for us to talk it up with the central banks there’s a chance of creating a consensus, which will ensure that we’re protecting the interest we’re serving and making sure that the banks are doing everything in their power to protect our shareholders. We also need to put into question our policies regarding risk to our shareholders. So, in general, I believe we need to work on this.
There was a time at the meeting where at one point I felt I needed to give the company a bit of closure. We had the auditors coming in and the board had the auditors present and the whole team was discussing what kind of problems we were having. We also had to figure out how to get this money back into the business and that included the possibility that it would have to come from outside of the business to be brought back from the corporate account.
So we are using the opportunity we have to do that, but obviously we have to figure out the first step. First of all, we must work with the financial advisors that are on the ground in this country so that we can work with them on how to put back our money. We’re using the opportunity to build trust between the financial advisors that we have for the banking entities in this country so that our customers are protected.
This was not the first time that the Fed has been trying to get us to cooperate with our government and the government agencies. You know, the last time this was done through the Congressional Debt Control Act the Fed had to go in through the ETP Act and that was done by a bipartisan group of three senators. These were all passed through the Congress to increase transparency.
So, by doing that as part of the compromise there are a couple of things that we really need to do at this point.