preview

The American International Bank Case

Decent Essays

THE AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BANK CASE
* Summary of the Situation
Tamara Long sat in her office reflecting on the tough past 6 weeks. She was the head of the international department at the American International Bank (AIB). Six weeks ago, the Chairman of the bank had called Tamara into his office. A bulletin had just come over the bank 's wire indicating that a military coup had taken place in Portugal.
The bulletin also reported that the new military dictator had frozen all foreign assets in Portugal and had imposed strict currency controls to keep capital from fleeing the country. When the Chairman heard about this, he asked Tamara a perfectly logical question:
What was the bank 's exposure in Portugal?
It had taken Tamara over a …show more content…

She had complete confidence in their judgment and was kept informed through monthly reports as well as phone conversations on any major transactions. Tamara made semiannual visits to all the branches and quite often would accompany the CEOs of major clients when they went abroad to arrange for mergers or acquisitions.
During these trips, Tamara made sure that the local branch manager accompanied her on all client visits. Once every quarter, each branch manager visited headquarters in New York to review clients, discuss plans, and exchange ideas. Tamara would try to schedule these meetings so that as many managers as possible would be in New York at the same time. This afforded a chance for the managers to meet and to exchange information about mutual clients. All in all, the working environment at AIB was competitive but cordial, and there was a feeling of trust and mutual respect among management personnel.
Each of the branches had a computer. These ranged in size from an IBM 4300 system at the London office to minicomputers in all the other offices. London was the most automated of the overseas offices; it was the largest, and it also had a thriving trust operation and a merchant banking business (securities transactions). The other offices used their computers to maintain branch financial records, bank ledgers, and information needed to prepare government regulatory reports. Other than monthly

Get Access