Cents and Sensibility

In these times, the situation was not unusual. The Suburban Bank of Norristown, Pa., found that 10% of its customers who had taken out loans were unable to make their payments. Nor was it surprising that the bank discovered that nearly 75% of those who were be hind in their payments were out of work.

What was surprising was what the bank did about the problem.

Loan Manager Noreen Lawless got together a list of unfilled menial jobs and began calling up her delinquent clients to offer them work. She had a lot of trou ble making people believe her. "They thought it was some kind of gimmick," she says. "They never had a bank offer to help them out before."

In the past few weeks, the bank has found full-or part-time work for about 30 of its customers. Not only is the bank earning dividends of good will that should be invaluable in the future, but the delinquency rate on the loans has begun to decline.

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