Banking

The financial services industry has always been something of an enigma to me. After reading THE BANKERS, it still is. Perhaps the lush reviews garnered by this book instilled unrealistic expectations: I expected a carefully researched, scholarly treatment of the banking business past-to-present. For better or worse, this book reads more like a quirky monologue by someone who knows the banking business well, but who prefers to deliver his knowledge by free association rather than by cogent and orderly description. The anecdotes are sometimes very entertaining, and the reader does pick up some valuable insights. But the return on effort extended is less than excellent. What's especially ironic is the book's chapters ARE cogently organized...it's only the follow-through that's lacking.

The book's high point is Chapter 3 (Paying Bills). Here the author does an admirable job of describing the excruciatingly convoluted process of check clearance. It would seem to be the dullest subject imaginable, but Mayer brings it to life -and I suspect he does such an admirable job because he has a flair for showing the quirkiness in any subject under the sun. The biggest disappointment of the book is how Mayer is compelled to entangle his journalistic prominence with whatever other point he wants to make ("A team of television journalists came from a Japanese network to visit me in Washington..."). Once again, there are some terrific insights, and some entertaining one-liners. It's just that the perspective one receives seems indulgently biased, and not particularly comprehensive.

I run with a crowd of i-bankers, and I bought this book to try to better understand what they do all day. However, this book is a LOT of history, and the entire first Part of the book is VERY basic information relating to what "money" is.

If you learn well through anecdotes, you will find this book both informative and easy to read. If, on the other hand, you are considering this book thinking it will be information about the modern banking industry given in a straightforward way, you're out of luck. In order to understand the industry (or what pieces of it this book explores, anyway) you have to extrapolate larger themes from nearly 500 pages of amost exclusively history and anecdotal examples. In addition, Martin has a habit of describing people in the industry, e.g., "Mr. X, a swarthy fellow I knew while still a fencer at Penn and something of a womanizer besides..." For some, I'm sure this keeps the book from being too dry. I, on the other hand, found these descriptions annoying and diversionary.

In sum, if you're looking for information about the modern banking industry, just read chapters nine and ten, which are well-written, relatively complete, and exceptionally easy to understand. If, instead, you are looking for the story of how banking has evolved, or you just like to read businessmen's tales, then this is the book for you.

This is the first and only book I've ever read on banking. But it is very well written, clear, concise, and filled with interesting bits of history. The author shows extreme mastery of the topic. If you read any book about the industry, this should be it.

A superficial synopsis of international banking principles & law. Worthless except for general knowledge. Non-professional. I do not recommend it at any price.