BUSINESS WRITING

The case of the rapacious lender.

You are a loan officer in a bank.  The president of the bank wants more loans, more mortgages, more credit cards sold.  He has raised the commission on all these financial tools and has promised bonuses to the top sellers; in addition, he has placed ads promoting these products in local newspapers and TV stations.  Furthermore, as a leading officer, you know you are in line for a promotion to vice president if you make lots of sales.

Potential customers stream into the bank the next week.  You are busy every day processing loans, mortgages, and credit card applications.  Many of the customers don’t have good credit, but are allowed to take out risky mortgages at high interest rates, car loans with little down, and credit cards with high fees and interest rates.  You know that many of these customers will fail to cover their loans, so the bank will be able to repossess the homes and cars, and freeze the credit cards, and take out liens against their possessions, leaving the borrowers destitute and in need of government assistance.

You have always practiced egoism, which allows you to do anything that gets you ahead.  You believe in caveat emptor (let the buyer beware).  You are looking forward to the increased commissions, the fat bonus, and the promotion to vice president.

What should you do?

1. 1.       Explain to the president how risky the loans are and the damage he will probably be doing to the community.
2. 2.       Warn the customers away from taking on more than they can afford.
3. 3.       Accept the commission, but give the bonus to a local charity that takes care of homeless people.
4. 4.       Refuse to process any unreasonable loan.
5. 5.       You only live once: go for broke, get the high commission, take the bonus, and accept the promotion.  How the customers handle the loans is not your problem.
6. 6.       Decline the promotion because you can’t help manage a bank that pillages working class people.
7. 7.       Resign from the bank immediately.
8. 8.       On Thanksgiving, give turkeys to all your customers who owe $50,000 or more to the bank.
9. 9.       Start lining up all the things that you will buy with the extra money you’ll be making: (1) new car, (2) new clothes, (3) new landscaping.  Besides the money will trickle back down to auto workers, textile workers, and lawn maintenance workers.
10. 10.   After the money comes in, take a long vacation and forget about the misery you will have had a hand in creating.

In a brief essay, explain your choices and why you made them.