AN AMRO TOKYO CONFERENCE – AND SPECIAL “SERVICE” AT A RESTAURANT

Since the opening of AMRO's New York office as the bank's first foreign branch, several other foreign branches had been established in different countries, and in June this year, the first AMRO International Managers’ Conference was held, in Tokyo. While attending this conference, I was surprised by a luncheon invitation from the Bank of Tokyo at a very senior level. The purpose (as I was to find out) was to thank me for the attention I had given to the Japanese banks during my term as the president of the Institute of Foreign Bankers. We owe you much,’ said my gracious host.

It left me wondering what I had done to deserve this praise. I suppose they actually were grateful for being tipped off before the full wrath of the American banking establishment hit them. Or else it was my effort to draw the Japanese banks more into the Institute's inner circle by reminding them that to have more influence on the activities of the Institute — which is what they wanted — they had to get actively involved in its policy-making, rather than be the silent bystanders they had been. Either way, the experience confirmed once again the obvious truth that we should never give up trying to communicate with — and to include rather than exclude — the odd man out, however tedious or difficult the effort might be.

Another, bigger surprise was the announcement at the conference that because of large losses suffered on Asian loans, AMRO's board had decided to stop all “local lending5 throughout its Asian branch network, and restrict all future lending in Japan to keiretsu (major group) companies plus a handful of other large corporations. The rationale for that was that, since Japanese lending was unprofitable anyway, we might as well stick to the safe names. There was a strong hint that this policy might be revised if I would agree to assume the management of the Asian operations, but I refused to take the bait. Times had changed, and I doubted if my earlier performance could be repeated.