Business Advantage

With 30 years retail banking experience behind him,there's very little about procedures that Louis Baldachino doesn't have at his fingertips, and as an enthusiastic "organiser" who enjoys "setting up procedures and making them work" one can see why he has been pivotal to the success of Barclays Bank's new Business Advantage Service. every department and gaining in valuable experience as he rose up the promotional ladder.

"In my final year at school peo ple from the Youth Centre ar ranged for talks by various em ployers about potential job oppor tunities. 1 liked what they said about banking... and applied to Barclays. That was it... and I've never regretted it", he says. "If it hadn't been the bank, it would have been some other office work — something I've always liked,., setting up procedures and organ izing staff and teams.

"Our involvement in interna tional issues should not be mis taken for any concession or erosion of our fiscal sovereignty... Inter national initiatives should not im pinge on this point and our in volvementin these has always been on the basis that tax competition is a positive economic force," he said, in a clear reference to the recent pressures on offshore finance cen tres by the OECD and other inter national bodies in their attempts to tighten controls on what they re gard as low tax havens.

"Since last year— following the commitments that more than 30 countries gave to the OECD,there has been some progress in the at tempt to standardise the account ing requirements aimed at securing transparency and access to infor mation," Azopardi said."Simulta neously the EU has finally, after much political horse-trading.

Convent — predicted: "Next year will be a good year for Gibraltar" when I spoke to him briefly.

In fact the cold, mist-laden wind blowing off the Thames did noth ing to dampen any of our spirits as we trooped out of the Guildhall Gallery to watch a performance and march past by the band of the Army Air Corps, augmented for the oc casion by five members of the Gi braltar Regiment.

"It's a great do. Brilliantly organ ised," commented Joe Gaggero, president of GB Airways and chair man of the Bland Group. "One hopes they can keep it up for many years to come."

Credit for the day's success goes to Albert Poggio, head of the Gi braltar Government Office in Lon don, who promises:"If you thought this year's 'day' was great. wait till next year, that's going to be a real humdinger." a,

As BankingServices Maivager in charge of the Bank's operations at its Main Street branch it fell to Louis to control the change-over of the procedures which saw a shift of pressures from the cash iers at the tellers tills to the "back room" operations. And, as a per son who takes genuine pleasure in dealing with people whether staff or the bank's customers—his colleagues agree that if was Louis'skills which made the transition and adaptation of the new systems — as smooth as they were.

"To handle the shift of the volume of business from the counters to the back office meant considerable restructure," he says. "But it's the sort of thing I really enjoy doing and, in a sense, the reatively smooth introduction of 'Business Advantage' has been one of the highlights of my career so far. We had a clear objectiveand a deadline — which were suc cessfully met... something of which I'm quietly proud." He's also pleased that as a msult of the new arrangements Business Ad vantage customers will be able to make nigh-safe deposits during the Christmas period... even when the bank is closed.

Louis joined the bank in 1973, straight from the Rock's grammar school and — with the exception of two years when he was sec onded to the Barclays branch at Heathrow Airport"about 20 years ago" — has been involved in its Main Street operations working in

"As far as I can recall I started off in the Foreign Exchange sec tion..."

In the early 1970s,although the bank ran some in-house training, there were few of the opportuni ties for extra studies in banking which staff enjoy todav — "and are actively encouraged by the bank to take up" — he explains. "By the time these extra mural courses became widely available I had already learnt most of what they had to teach during my work in the bank. I also learnt a lot — and widened my un derstanding of banking practice — working on the company management side with Barclays Trust as part of my progress in the branch.

"Isuppose I got caught up in the system—but you really can't beat hands-on experience.It's a bit like driving a car. No matter how well you may do in the test for your driving licence, it's what happens on the road afterwards that counts."

In his current role as well as be ing in charge of the branch's per sonnel,Louis keeps a watchful eye over all the other aspects of its work — clearing, data capture, counter and back-room services and,of course,customer relation ships.

"Like the rest of the staff, I con sider this a very important as pect," he adds.

Married and with two sons one 11, the other eight — Louis' wife is expecting their third child in March next year.