THE PASSING of Donald Addison Banks marks the end of a 50-year era which saw Jamaicans working assiduously to forge the influence of their euro-centric past into a home-grown culture, part of the emancipation from mental slavery of which Marcus Garvey spoke and later to be popularised by Bob Marley. The financial services industry handled its peculiar problems in varied and innovative ways and the leadership role of a Don Banks earned him national recognition.
Suffice to say that Don Banks epitomised all that was good and positive of a banker: the banker's word being his bond, the banker knowing his customer, the banker that was easy to talk to, and the banker who spoke of and lived out total integrity.
Bank customers are fast becoming peculiar multi-digit numbers (like the TRN) and all will lament the passing of bankers such as Don Banks who understood the intrinsic value of the personal touch. May the soul of Donald Addison Banks find rest.
