European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 02, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday4. Panl 2, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 17money matters j a Strong majority of corporate accountants and financial managers predict thae the current economic recession will be Over by the end of the year a recent Survey by the National association of accountants shows 76 percent of the Trade group expects the . Economy to improve within a year compared with Only 12 percent who think the Economy will be weaker a year from now. With .94,000 Mem Bers the association is the largest organization of _ management accountants and financial managers in the world. Conversion rates London up the easter Holiday kept european markets closed monday with no opening or closing Dollar prices available. The markets were expected to resume Normal trading tuesday. Earlier in Japan dealers traded normally and the Dollar closed slightly higher against the yen As dealers held Back on trading on the first Day of fiscal 1991. V the Dollar finished the Day at 140.60 yen a 0,10-Ycn gain from fridays late new York rate of 140.50, and up 0,05 yen from fridays Tokyo close. Dealers were reluctant to Trade on the first Day of the fiscal year dealers said. A with the new year trading remained Low keyed a said Kazuo Takayama of Barclays Bank. Dealers also shied away in anticipation of a slowdown in overseas trading amid the partial world Market closure for the easter Holiday Takayama said. Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use will be 1.67 tuesday based on thursdays noontime Price fixing. I it. By Matthew l. Wald the new York times v Philadelphia a More than a month after the . Victory in the persian Gulf businesses that sell Energy Sav ing devices to american homeowners Are learning that Consumers Arentt very interested in conservation. A it a Short War prices arc coming Down and people have Short memories a said Anthony j. Alexandre president of Energy tech conservation products inc. Of Middletown Conn. Firms like Alexandres Are having trouble convincing retailers to carry their insulation High efficiency Light bulbs and similar products and Consumers Are ignoring the products too even when a third party is willing to pay for them. The beginning of the Kuwait crisis brought a renewed flurry of interest in insulating attics and sealing up cracks but the Swift military Victory Over Iraq is proving to be a setback for a the View of Liz Robinson executive director of the Energy coordinating Agency a Volunteer group in Philadelphia that helps poor people keep warm in their Homes. A if the War had been prolonged a she said a the lesson might have hit hdme.�?�. Robinsons assessment shared by Many of the nearly 900 experts on the use of Energy in buildings attending a recent conference on the subject in Phila Delphia most of the attendees were government officials or representatives of nonprofit agencies. T. Alexandre one of about 30 vendors showing products at the conference. He. Too agreed that conserving Energy Isnit the a a in thing right now. _ Alexandres firm makes Box like covers for attic hatches and Foid up stairs teas in Many houses that ire uninsulated add draft. A test by mass save a nonprofit group in Massachusetts that performs evaluations of Energy efficiency in houses. Found that the insulated Gas acted Box would save 564 kilowatt hours each heating season. Depending on the Quot Utility that much Power can Cost up to $70.alexandre estimates that for most Consumers with draft attics his a Therma dome would pay for itself in less than two years. But Home Supply stores will not carry the product he said because they do not believe that shoppers will think they Are Worth buying. So he Sells the product in bulk to utilities non profit organizations or the contractors who do Home improvement work for them. A at another Booth in the exhibition Hall William p. Hoag and Peter w. Holden showed a quilted window cover that they said reduced heat leakage from a window by 85 percent. A the cover which Sells for $200 to $250 a window unrolls like a window Shade and slides Down the length of the window on tracks on either Side. When closed it provides a Seal on All four sides. The two men said their company appropriate technology corp. Of Brattleboro vt., one of the few survivors of Many such companies that started up after the first Oil crisis in 1973. Sales of the Roll up quilt have been Flat since 1976, Hoag said. Despite the generally poor showing for the Industry there Are some signs of Success Many residential customers arc interested in compact fluorescent bulbs which screw into Standard sockets and provide four times the Light and last 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs said Francis j. Shanoff 111, a distributor for the Matsushita electric Industrial corp. Of America which makes Pana Sotu red High Effie Eney bulbs. But most people. Probably still done to know about die bulbs no added. Even though the technology of diagnosing Energy waste has improved experts say the Job of following through with actual improvements Haselt become any easier. Gregory w. Adkins with the new Jersey. Department of Community affairs said his office found that performing an Energy audit for a Homeowner or land. A. Lord does t guarantee results,1 a a \ Quot lets be for real Elk said. A if you do a computerized audit in a Low income area that says that insulating the attic could Cut expenses $1,000 a year and if the building needs a new roof to begin with then that report is going to be of limited John Dilts of the Rochester Gas and electric corp. Pointed to other problems with Energy audits. A if you re talking to commercial or Industrial people Quot he said a you show them on a piece of paper they can save a Nickel and do but in private houses he said a people really have a Tough time understanding what they Are looking and Utility companies which Are anxious to avoid building new Power plants Are among the few entities encouraging customers to do More with less several experts said. A Many utilities have conservation programs. The new England electric sys Tern for example spent More than $70 million last year or More than 4 percent of its Gross receipts on Energy awareness programs. Commerce Bank earned its safest reputation by James risen the los Angeles times Kansas City to. A Welcome to Commerce Bank the safest Bank in America. A. As hundreds of Banks around the United states Are failing each year threatening a repeat of the savings and loan debacle a this one is flourishing. Commerce ban shares the Bank a Parent company is making re Cord profits after having doubled its earnings during the second half of the 1980s, and the Bank itself maintains what analysts say is the cleanest balance Sheet in the Industry with one of the fattest Levels of capital reserves of any bunk in the country. All this has been enough to earn Commerce Bank the reputation of being As Safe As a Well As Safe As an old fashioned Bank. In 1989, a Survey conducted by United states banker Magazine rated Commerce the a least risky and a a bests Bank in America last year Commerce Bank won again. Quot i done to think there is any question that it is the safest Bank around a says Robert Meeder a Kidder pea body analyst who follows regional Banks. Joseph Stic Ven a banking analyst with Stifel Nicolaus amp co., a St. Louis based brokerage agrees. V a it would be very difficult to find a More prudent management in banking today a he says. 1 analysts say Commerce a Success shows that despite the Long term economic squeeze that has plunged the Industry into its worst crisis since the great depression and left the survival of Many of the nation s largest Banks in doubt conservative management practices still can make a critical difference a if every Bank in the country had acted like Commerce we would still have had a banking crisis but i think it would be on a much smaller scale a Kidder Peabody a Stieven says. A. A a v Commerce has kept its health mainly by avoiding the excesses that enticed so Many other Bankers during the 1970s and 1980s, during an Era when the growing competitive pressures on the Industry were leading Many Bankers to take greater risks. J the Bank can Trace much of its style to a deep tradition of Sharp eyed lending practices. In 1893, . Woods the Bank a founder gave some advice to his Nephew who about to set up a Bank in Colorado a i can forgive you almost anything a he wrote a but making bad nearly a Century later Woods descendants still run his Bank a and still remember his cautionary words. Jim Kemper patriarch of the present Day family just sent a copy of his great grandfathers letter to his soils Jonathan and David who Are now running Commerce. It reminds them of the family a deeply ingrained tradition of conservative banking but the Kemper sons the family a fifth generation at the Helm of Commerce already were practising what . Woods preached. The Bank always has been closely linked to the local elite missourian Harry s Truman for instance began As a clerk at Commerce Bank. For decades the Bank a credit officer local Leader arthut Eisenhower brother of Dwight d. Eisenhower. A Over the generations those family and Community ties have helped Commerce keep its Money close to the relatively stable Economy of Kansas City a and out of too much trouble far from Home. V a my father banked there and in be had an account there since i a Little boy and they have always been a conservative Bank a says Henry Bloch chairman of a amp a Block and a member of Commerce a Board of in Boom times of course the Kempers prudence looked much More. Jike tight listed parochial user Quot we be been criticized in the past for our ending practices a David Kemper concedes ,. A there have been times when people in town did no to think we were doing enough in terms of lending for local businesses he says. A. Still when new fads in risky lending began to develop Over the past 20 years the Kempers did something most Bankers seemed unable to do they just said no. In the Early 1970s, when other Bankers were Rushing to lend to third world nations the wary Kempers were pulling but of Mexico. Today Commerce has Only one. Foreign loan on . A later the Kempers Cut Back on agricultural joans Early in the farm crisis and stayed out of Energy lending. The _ Bank now Jias no Oil and Gas Loans on . More recently the Bank rebuffed repeated attempts by Wall Street investment Bankers to get Commerce to help finance junk Bonds for risky leveraged buyout deals. A a. A a a a a a. A Quot a a a we just decided not to play that game Quot said Jona than Kemper president of Commerce Bank of Kansas City a major subsidiary of Commerce ban shares a a we just done to loan Money for things we done to Jim Kemper now 69 and the chairman of Commerce ban shares contends that the family a innate caution has been bolstered by a few bad experiences. A my father lost a ranch to the government Down in Mexico in the 1930s, so we never bought this idea that a Sovereign government default on its Loans a a he said. A. David Kemper the 40-year-old chairman of com Merce Bank of St Louis one of Commerce Banc shares two main banking operations in Missouri has similar memories. A i remember my father saying 10 years ago that he never wanted to have to Send the marines in to collect on a loan a Kemper says. Quot Quot a the always very suspicious of third world a to. A a a a. R a a analysts who keep tabs on the Bank a Progress believe that the key to Commerce a Success has been that unlike the managers of Many larger Banks Commerce a owners Are also its managers. The Kempers have Bee willing to keep much of the family a own Money tied up in the Bank a Stock. A the management owns a lot of Stocky so they Are real careful with their Money a says Ken Puglisi a regional banking analyst with the new York brokerage firm of Keefe Bruyette and Woods
