Christine Bottino-Danino — A Personal Banker

rungs of the bank's promotional ladder and in June became one of the four personal bank ers at Barclays in Main Street...These, in ef fect, arc the public "face" of the bank for its thousands of private clients.

"My father used to work for Barclays and it was he who suggested that 1 apply for a tem porary job as a 'stop-gap' telephonist," Christine explains. "Then, somehow, it just snow-balled... and I've never regretted it."

After a spell as a 'permanent' telephonist, she became a cashier,later taking over as chief cashier at the bank's old branch in Gibraltar Heights... and remains on friendly terms with a stream of the customers from those days whom she now sees regularly in her new role as a personal banker.

"Gibraltar is a relatively small community where,in a sense,everyone knowseveryone," she says,"Nevertheless it is remarkable how many older customers come in and remem ber mo from the Gibraltar Heights branch.

rewarding — "mainly because of the wide mix of people that 1 meet each day and the range ofproblems or questions which 1 have to deal with." ,

As well as regular bank customers with personal accounts — and new customers wanting to open an account—Christine deals with a steady flow of tourists.These may have queries about anything from cashing travel lers'cheques and foreign exchange rates-al though in the main banking hall there are clearly marked counters which deal with these! - to visitors who want to arrange to have money transferred to Gibraltar from an account they hold elsewhere.

When,soon after leaving sehtK>l, Christine Boltino-Danino joined the staff of Barclays Bank in Gibraltar the appointment was tem porary — a three-month stint as a telephonist to cover for a permanent staff member who wason maternity leave.That was 30 years ago and since then—with interruptions to become a mother herself! — Christine has climbed the

"And its not just locals," she adds with a smile. "Soon after I took over as a personal banker, an English couple who were tourists came in. It must have been at least ten years ago — if not longer — since I had .seen them, but thev recogni.sed me... and it turned out that they had been customers of the bank when the husband had worked in the Dcxkyard."

Of all the jobs she has handled during her years with Barclays,Christine reckons that per sonal banking is the most enjoyable and most

An oasis...

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"Then there are locals who have credit card queries or who want to arrange telegraphic transfers of cash to their sons and daughters who are studying in the UK — we have quite a lot of those — and at the end of each month there is usually a string of pensioners with a range of questions about their payments, she says.

There are also the regular visitors dubbed repetitive customers by Christine — who come in almost daily with trivial queries re lating to their accounts."I think some of them are just lonely and drop in to the bank to see a friendly face or have someone to talk to for a few minutes."

And,in Christine and her fellow personal bankers,they find the friendly face — the face of the bank.

...in a festive world!

Yes 1 knowthat's not your real job descripticm but someone's got to do it!!

Every year at around this time someone in the organisation is asked to 'organise the Christmas party','sort out the Christmas bash'or get some infomiation on the 'Christmas do'.

This mav seem easv but frankly it can be as ditHcult as working out the molecular structure of DNAor (even more complicated) predicting David Beckham's next hairstyle!

At the Rock we realise the following:

YOU AREA BUSY PERSON

YOU PROBABLY HAVE A BUDGET

YOU WILL WANT VALUE FOR MONEY

9^,YOU WILL DEFINITELY WANT TO HAVE AGREAT TIME

<2^ GREAT FOOD IS IMPORTANT ON THE NIGHT

HAVING ORGANISED THE EVENING YOU WILL WANT TO RELAX!

Why not call, fax or e-mail Toby Tobelem or Janet Waterfleld on 73000. 73513 or Toby;a rock hotel.gi respectively.

Give them a call,come and have some tea or coffee and a chat.

We promise you - you won't need an arm or a leg. to be waited on hand and foot!

Yours with premature Christmas wishes

EuropaKoad.tiibraitar

Tel:(-^350)73^MI0 Fax:(+350)73513

E-mail: rock hotel « gibnynex.gi Web site: w« w.rorkhotelgibral tar.com