On July 9, young Russian banking students joined forces with Queen Anne residents in the name of bettering the future of banking.
The 18 Russian banking students’ eyes lit up when they visited the Queen Anne branch of the HomeStreet Bank on upper Queen Anne. The students — representing various vocational banking institutions in Russia — saw for the first time how banking is done in the United States.
“It was a useful experience for us,” said Yury Gubachev, one of the students. “Students from Russia [like us] are getting a great perspective of banking. American banking is very consistent. We can now use this knowledge in our own country and build something even greater in the future.”
Hossein Soleymani, assistant vice president and branch manager at the Queen Anne branch of HomeStreet Bank, led the educational session. He was excited by the opportunity.
“HomeStreet Bank has a different feel to it: There’s furniture and a fireplace, a lot like home,” he said before the students arrived. “So I’m curious to see what these young Russian students will think.”
“The more intercultural we are, the less problems we’ll have,” Soleymani, a native of Iran, added.
An inside look
HomeStreet Bank was the first of several banks the students visited during their stay in Seattle. They will visit large banks, as well.
Students had many questions for Soleymani as they were shown around the facility: questions about customer privacy, the size of banks, the types of transactions that can be done, remote banking, accessing banking services on-line and related issues of on-line security, and government vs. private ownership of banks in the United States.
“Banks are private,” Soleymani explained. “Me, you and others can buy stocks, but not the government.”
“Another important part of our bank is our involvement with the community,” he said, regarding a student’s question about the role of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). “All banks have to be involved in the community — not just write checks, but also volunteer. The FDIC will want to know, ‘Do you support low-income people or just rich people?’ We have to do both.”
Soleymani explained the importance of the FDIC certificate and Washington state and Seattle business licenses hanging on the wall. He also talked about the necessity of shredding documents at the end of the day, changing on-line passwords every three months and about the security cameras throughout the bank monitoring every space.
“Once I got balloons for an employee’s birthday and put them behind a chair. Moments later, security calls and says they can’t see. I had to move the balloons,” Soleymani said, which drew laughter from the group.
The future of banking
Dr. Tatyana Tsyrlina-Spady, adjunct professor at Seattle Pacific University and senior advisor of Associates in Cultural Exchange (ACE) in Seattle explained how the students are in a vocational professional education program focused on banking.
Post-secondary education works differently in Russia than in the United States. After high school, students either attend a university or a vocational program that focuses on a specific career. While a university education is academically rigorous and not for everyone, a vocational program like this one allows students to also receive a bachelor’s degree.
The Central Bank of Russia funds the program.
“The Central Bank of Russia covers all the expenses here,” Tsyrlina-Spady said. “The students were picked up because of their academic success. They are the best students of that year in that program.”
This is the first year of this program. Professor Polina Palekhova, deputy head of the Moscow Banking School, pivotal in the program’s creation, hopes it will continue in future years.
Ten of the students — ages 18 to 24 — were from the Moscow Banking School, with the rest from other banking programs.
The students began their first day in Seattle, July 9, by attending two lectures at the University of Washington, along with a campus tour. They made their way to HomeStreet Bank in the late afternoon. The group stayed at Seattle Pacific University.
The ACE hosted the program.
“I wanted to know about the future of economics – I know it’s not stable,” said Ekaterina Dubinina, one of the students. “Everything about economics changes, and I want to know more about it and what I need to know to make a career with money [sic].”