Bank managers, branches and ISAs

metacity

I have very little experience interacting with banking and finance environments but would like to learn more and so I have a bunch of questions - educate me (I don't know if this is the correct place to post this message)

What is the purpose of the bank managers? Is this the person that looks after your account? Do you have to maintain a good relationship with them? Are they only for wealthy people and not for customer of any generic high street bank (halifax, lloyds, etc)? How are you supposed to use them? What kind of advise can they give?
Is there any help that this person can give me that a forum can't?

Are bank accounts only associated with a particular branch? And if you want to talk to you bank manager you talk to the one in the branch you opened your account.

Is the idea of bank managers and branches outdated?

ISAs:

If I save £3600 (lump sum) into a cash isa in year 1, can I open another cash isa in year 2 and save £7200 all togeather? Or do you essentailly just invest the same £3600 in year 2 ?

help?

LongTermLurker

I think the idea of "going to see my bank manager" and "my bank manager's gonna hate me" is pretty much out of date with individual savers today. In a modern bank, you would expect to speak to a consultant (for want of a better word) or generally just a representative of the bank if you needed to talk about anything. I guess the Manager has overall responsibility for that branch. The older banks such as HSBC and Barclays are, if any, the ones that are likely to stick to "old standards"; the ones that used to be Building Societies, such as Halifax, are a lot more modern and easy going.

Some banks will force you to deal only with the branch that opened your account, but that's not generally the case - eg if you wanted to deposit or withdraw money you could expect to do that at any branch.

For your ISA question, yes - you can put away £3600 before 5 April 2009 and then another £3600 between 6/4/09 - 5/4/10 and then again each year after.

catz1ct

I think for the more traditional role of the bank manager you either need to be a business customer or a private banking customer.

johnaspley

I worked at a branch of HSBC for 6 months and our branch manager was just like any other retail environment manager. She knew next to nothing about the products, systems and procedures at the bank but was just a good motivator and 'people person'. The concept of a bank manager looking after a portfolio of bank accounts is limited to business & corporate banking, or very wealthy individuals (at HSBC for instance you needed £50k in savings with us to qualify for 'Premier' banking, and were given a direct contact ie account manager at your local branch).

Aegis

Essentially the position of "bank manager" isn't really enough to define the role any more. All it means is someone working for the bank of a manager's contract, which could be anything from a senior back office worker to an independent financial adviser. Generally the ones who just use the phrase "bank manager" will be in charge of the bottom line of the branch, so overall responsibility for what the branch does lies with them. They'll also take an interest in the way that customers are treated and complaints handled, but their primary responsibility would be to decide branch-specific strategy and to manage the employees.

A bank relationship manager would be to person that certain clients would have as a first point of contact for any of their needs, and generally these are assigned to the higher net worth customers and are tasked with getting to know their clients in much more depth than the standard bank workers ever need to.

There are a load more managerial positions, but these are the two that are most likely to apply to someone wanting to see their bank manager.