THE RECEIVING TELLER General Duties and Organization of Receiving Teller's Depart ment The receiving teller is known as the "second" teller. In very small banks his work is combined with that of the paying teller; but the first line of specialization in a bank is the separation of these two tellers' duties. The department of the receiving teller receives all cash items delivered over the window by depositors for credit on their accounts, proves such items, and distributes and charges them to the proper departments of the bank.
The second teller deals with the customers of the bank. He sooner or later meets practically all the customers and has the greatest opportunity to popularize his institution and perpetuate its good-will. If the teller forgets himself occasionally and be comes indifferent to the requests of a customer, the customer may form an erroneous opinion of the bank's methods of conducting business. Courtesy, tact, and careful attention are necessary attributes of a successful teller.
The internal organization of this department varies with the personnel and number of depositors. Banks with a great number of counter depositors who deposit often and in small amounts, require numerous windows and tellers and classify their depositors alphabetically in groups per teller. Banks in the residence sec tion of a city may cater to female depositors and have a special section and teller for women. Such up-town or country banks are in contrast with metropolitan down-town banks, which have rela tively few counter depositors and large mail operations. In the latter type of bank the window work can be handled by a single receiving teller and an assistant receiving teller in the first cage, with a few sorters and entry clerks in other cages adjacent and subsidiary.
By the alphabetical division the body of customers assigned to one teller can be reduced to such number as may be personally known by him, and the personal factor, so desirable in any busi ness, can be realized. By this means the line of customers before
the window can also be shortened; customers appreciate this economy of time and effort. The division of the bookkeeping of the bank naturally follows the same alphabetical grouping.
The great defect of the separation of the paying, receiving, and other tellers, with windows for each, is that a customer must appear at several windows if his business is at all complex. He must wait his turn at one window after another, and this is waste ful of time and patience. To obviate this objection some banks with large counter trade have broken up the bank into distinct units complete in themselves and combining the functions of paying teller, receiving teller, and others, in one teller; the cus tomer can then do all his business at the one window and be saved tiresome waiting at successive windows. This unit system is a recent development.
Opening an Account and Making a Deposit The initiative in opening an account may lie with the bank officer in charge of a particular area, with the credit department, with the new business department, with another depositor and friend of the applicant, or with the applicant himself. It depends upon circumstances and upon the organization and policy of the bank. When a person applies to open an account and become a depositor, he is first referred to the bank officer in charge of the applicant's area, who with the help of the credit department and new business department will decide whether the applicant will make a desirable client of the bank. The factors considered are his character, his financial and business reputation, his connec tions, the present and prospective average balance of the proposed account, its probable permanency, etc. If the applicant passes this test, the officer prepares a "new account" slip, which author izes the receiving teller to receive the deposits and issue a pass book and check book. A set of signatures is invariably required of the new customer.