A budding journalist's report from the Iowa School of Banking's front row

Northwestern Financial Review, Jul 15, 2001 by Dullum, Justin

My week attending the Iowa School of Banking June 11-15 began with a couple of hitches. Relatively new to banking journalism, I was attending the school courtesy of a John H. Hughes scholarship awarded by the Iowa Bankers Association.

Usually you have to pay extra money to sit front row and center at concerts, sporting events and so on, but I acquired the best seat in the house at the School of Banking for the low cost of showing up several minutes late. To make matters worse, while juggling luggage, registering and checking into a room, I simultaneously received and lost the preprinted, laminated nametag given to all students at registration.

Being one of two students from a state other than Iowa wasn't nearly as daunting as being the only one of 28 not pursuing a career in banking or finance and, thanks to my finely tuned organizational skills, the only one without an instantly discernable name. Also, thanks to my poor map reading abilities, I held the least-sought-after seat in every classroom. Thankfully, I soon learned that none of these small things would matter.

The school is broken into two, week-long sessions occurring over two years. The first-year session, which I attended, is designed to teach the fundamentals of banking and finance to people with a wide variance of banking experience. Students had anywhere from none to 20-plus years in the industry, and ranged in title from assistant cashier to vice president and CEO. Their respective banks ranged in assets from $22 million to $400 million. Like my small foibles, these statistics ultimately did not matter.

Therein lies the school's greatest attribute: it offers something for everybody. Even a nameless journalist took home a wealth of useful knowledge.

In the hotel atrium the morning of the final test, which must be passed in order to return for the second-year session, casual discussions could be overheard on the trade-off between reducing liquidity risk and increasing profits, or the importance of cash flow versus earnings in assessing repayment prospects. The hotel had turned into a sort of ancient Athens for bankers.

Maybe I'm romanticizing this a bit. Still, discussion outside of the classroom almost always revolved around banking. The students are there only because they want to be bankers or become better bankers. This general attitude coupled with the fine work the IBA has done in putting together an excellent school curriculum and faculty makes the school a tremendous investment for a bank looking to groom its employees.

The curriculum is at times very technical, and at other times philosophical. The amount of information covered can be overwhelming. Class literally runs all day Students are given enough free time to recharge the batteries but when you attend the Iowa School of Banking, pretty much all you do is attend the Iowa School of Banking. It's more work than fun, but you don't sign up with the intention of having a golf holiday. One goes to learn and one leaves having done so.