Mr Football swaps leagues
Sep 11 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal
A SENIOR figure in the North East commercial banking world went back behind the tills to find out what life is like in a modern branch.
“I’m a bundle of nerves,” said Steve Walton, corporate director for Barclays Commercial, after finishing his stint as a cashier in Newcastle’s Grainger Street branch.
Known as “Mr Football”, the former chief executive of Newcastle United works with many of the game’s leading clubs and is used to dealing with mega-bucks on a daily basis.
“I’m quite happy talking to clients about £100m deals, but cashing a cheque for a student was beyond me,” he said, after going back behind the tills for the first time in about a quarter of a century.
“We are having a national branch week to get senior management to understand what it is like at the coal face.
“In a moment of weakness, I agreed to go behind the till at Grainger Street, which is one of our busiest branches. The fundamentals haven’t changed, but the technology has completely changed. I felt about 1,000 years old!”
Mr Walton said he had enjoyed meeting staff and praised their enthusiasm. And although he is keen to spend more time behind the scenes at branch level, he said he wouldn’t be volunteering for the stress of staffing the tills again.
