From Shylock to Scrooge McDuck, banker, through the years, have rarely achieved kind reputations. Even the lives of great philanthropists have been shaded by charges of "sharpness" and "monopoly." Actually however, bankers and the institutions they represent have achieved the respect and confidence of their communities, shedding completely the insidious stereotype of the villainous mortgage forecloser of the melodramas.

This trust has built up steadily with the expansion of financial centers in the United States. In the last 50 years, for instance, the number of banks has increased almost three-fold. Paralleling this surge are equally swollen opportunities for employees, including college-graduate trainees for executive post.

Such executives elect are in particular demand now; in the last 20 years, an ever-decreasing number of young men (and, to be sure, women) have entered the banking and finance field, obviously because of the depression and the war. Thus, banks themselves predict a great influx of younger administrators because of the scarcity of competition for the lucrative jobs day by day being vacated by the retirement of older men. And banks, staid and traditional as they may appear to be, are taking a progressive and competitive concern in their hiring programs. What, then, do these companies offer?

Four Divisions

Banking as an industry breaks down into four separate divisions, al offering a substantial number of official posts to new college graduates. Commercial banks handle checks and checking accounts, and loan out money for short terms to business men. As depositors in these banks, over one hundred million Americans now issue personal checks, circulating over one and three-quarter trillion dollars per year. Income garnered from small loans keeps most commercial banks in the black as far as operating expenses and dividends are concerned.

Trust bankers are specialists in supervising funds belonging to persons or corporations, frequently managing funds or estates in accordance with trust agreements. A trust banker must exercise prudence and precision in his investments to be sure of sending his client's children through college or of keeping the client comfortable for his years of retirement.

Savings banks, which are mostly concentrated in the states of Massachusetts and New York, rarely accept checking accounts. They provide a safe place for personal savings, and often feature savings bank life insurance and trust facilities.

Most specialized of the whole group are investment bankers, who are concerned with producing large sums of money for corporations needing capital funds. The notes for the money granted out are then sold as stocks and bonds on regular markets, making investment banking a doubled barreled sort of profit gaining.

All of these banks offer two types of employment, executive and clerical. Officials are hired in a ration of one to every five other workers, a very favorable figure from the point of view of the young aspirant for a high position.

At the present time, the ranks of bank workers number only about 400,000. What with the increases in branch banking, consumer credit, and government savings bonds, bank staffs will have to expand IBM machines or not.

Multiplier Effect

This seems doubly certain because of the mounting wealth, productive capacity, population, and because of the increasing complexity of business. Economists say that small business and consumer credit will particularly feel the expansion. any unemployment stemming from depression and the concomitant closing of banks will probably be negligible because of government reform measures.

Luxury-lovers will admit that banking can easily offer as much as any profession in the comfort afforded. Most larger banks, like Prudential, have the strength of Gibraltar, and consequently their employees can be certain of their weekly sustenance. Bankers also have reveled prestige in most American communities and, provided that they work in a reputable establishment, are likely to be in with the "accepted" set of citizens. Especially attractive are hours and conditions.

Pleasant Hours

The usual schedules working week is 40 hours. However, many cities in the vicinity of New York City have 37 1/2 hour bank weeks and some require even less work. On the other hand, this work is often irregular, especially in small banks. On some days there may be overtime work until well pat the accepted bankers' bedtime; other days may demand only six hours in the way of duty.