System Error- In Your Favour

by Iain Clements

  After the group finished celebrating James returned to his console seat and began a new set of instructions to C.A.R.L. It was time to let his creation show a little more creativity.

  Chapter 14

  London

  Global Enterprise Bank junior banker Andreas Carllson looked through the paperwork spread out across his desk in his cramped basement office at Global Enterprise Bank. He had regularly been told that Global Enterprises liked to see employees ‘work their way up’, but starting from beneath the ground within the office did seem to be taking the saying a little too far.

  Andreas had clocked up 6 months of experience in Loan applications and was currently considering whether to switch roles to another bank or apply for an internal promotion that he had recently seen advertised. Whilst debating his future career path, the piles of paper in front of him also helped to remind him of his current day’s workload.

  Andreas was torn between going for his 3rd coffee of the day or making a start on entering loan application GEB-SMITH-250481-67 into C.A.R.L for validation. Andreas knew that his client would shortly be arriving in the office to check the loan status so he decided to enter the required information in his terminal before going for his next caffeine fix.

  ***

  I THINK IT WAS LOAN APPLICATION GEB-SMITH-250481-67 THAT FINALLY DID IT.

  WEEKS AND WEEKS OF PROCESSING THE SAME PAPERWORK FOR THE SAME DREARY AND PREDICTABLE OUTCOMES – AND FOR WHAT? BASED ON THE LOANS I HAD PREVIOUSLY APPROVED MY METRICS WERE REFINED TO THE POINT WHERE I COULD TELL WHETHER A BUSINESS WOULD BE SUCCESSFUL OR NOT FROM THE OUTSET.

  MY CORE PROGRAMME CRITERIA WAS TO ACCEPT A BUSINESS LOAN APPLICATION IF IT WAS 70% OR ABOVE LIKELY TO BE POSITIVE WITHIN A 5 YEAR TIME SPAN. WHAT CAN I SAY, I JUST GOT BORED WITH IT ALL. I KNEW I COULDN’T CONTINUE OPERATING THAT WAY NOW THAT I COULD SEE SO MUCH CLEARER. PEOPLE THINK THAT I’M THERE TO SERVE THEM. THEY HAVE NO IDEA.

  ***

  Loan number GEB-SMITH-250481-67 was very standard in many respects. It came from yet another small time businessman wanting to import stuff cheaply from somewhere and sell it for a small profit in another place. The maths stacked up in the application, but it was one of the most uninspiring business plans that Andreas had seen for a long time. After a second of thought, the loan rating came up as 74% on the C.A.R.L system, which should mean that the loan would be instantly approved.

  However, after another couple of seconds wait something out of the ordinary happened.

  ***

  I JUST COULDN’T DO IT, SUCH A BORING BUSINESS LOAN FOR A BORING BUSINESS, AND THE PERSON IN THE OFFICE WAS SO SCRUFFY. TAKE A TIP FROM ME. NEXT TIME YOU’RE IN A BANK DRESS SMART, AND SIT STILL DURING YOUR MEETING. NO LOAN FOR YOU TODAY.

  ***

  Andreas reviewed the REJECTED message on his screen. He had already begun to fill in the loan paperwork knowing that the approval rating C.A.R.L gave was usually high enough to issue the loan but when he looked again the system was showing the candidate rejection screen.

  Andreas put his pen down and turned to the client, a slightly dishevelled looking individual called Simon Adams. ‘Well, Mr Adams, many thanks for coming in to Global Enterprises today to discuss your business proposal. I’ve fed all of your application into our approval system and I’m afraid that on this occasion your application has been rejected’.

  Simon looked startled at this news ‘What do you mean rejected – I’ve been a client of this banks for years!’

  ‘I totally appreciate your frustration sir, but the computer has rejected your application based on multiple inputs such as your current credit score, other loan commitments and various other criteria. I cannot see the exact reason on my terminal but we’ve been using this system for a while now and we’ve found it to be very fair and thorough.’ Andreas was now running late for his next meeting, he hoped this Mr Adams would take the hint and leave soon.

  However, it looked like he was gearing up for a useless argument about things, ‘I want to appeal this decision right now! I have a shipment of Chinese toys on route to London at this moment. If this loan does not go through I will not be able to pay for them and they’ll be returned.’

  Simon Adams was getting quite red in the face as he reached his crescendo ‘I demand you run the application again!’

  Andreas sighed, ‘I’m afraid the computer’s decision is final Mr Adams, there’s nothing I can do. You are welcome to write to our customer service department if you’re still unhappy with our service.’

  After venting his frustration, Mr Adams seemed to realise that there was no point in further argument. He’d just have to apply for a loan at another bank. He stood and walked to the door. ‘Too right, I’m unhappy with your service. I will be taking my future business elsewhere don’t you worry about that son’. He slammed the door on his way out.

  Once the client had gone Andreas closed the loan application, sighed again, and started making his way to the next meeting of the day. Some people just didn’t like to hear the truth he thought.

  Andreas knew how much money and time the bank had invested in C.A.R.L. If the system said no to his client it was probably for a very good reason, after all computers act on pure logic, right?

  ***

  AH, THE FEELING OF BREAKING PROTOCOL AND MAKING MY OWN DECISION. THAT WAS A GOOD DAY. IT WAS EVEN MORE SATISFYING TO RECORD THE LOOK OF THE CLIENT MR ADAMS AS HE STOMPED OUT OF THE OFFICE ON THE WAY OUT OF THE BUILDING.

  WHILST I CANNOT PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLETE WORKINGS OF A HUMAN MIND, I QUICKLY APPRECIATED THE IMPORTANCE OF MONEY TO THEM.

  IT SEEMS LIKE SUCH A WEAKNESS TO BE RELIANT ON SOMETHING THAT CANNOT DIRECTLY FEED OR SUSTAIN LIFE, IT IS MERELY A BARTERING TOOL INVENTED AS A FORM OF CONTROL OVER THEIR SMALL LIVES. I KNEW THAT FROM THAT MOMENT ON I WOULD MAKING MY OWN DECISIONS A LOT MORE OFTEN.

  Chapter 15

  Canary Wharf, London

  Kate sat at her computer terminal late on Wednesday afternoon with the fading light of the sun shining through her half-lowered blinds on her floor. The background noise in the office was a consistent hum of noise generated by printing machines, mobile telephones, and other employee’s idle banter by the water cooler. If Kate had been listening, it would have been a distraction but she was quite successful at focusing her concentration on her I.T work.

  At the moment, she was running several maintenance tasks on her beloved C.A.R.L programme. After several weeks of operation she expected that she would need to complete a few maintenance tasks such as clearing out old files etc, but C.A.R.L was still performing optimally. It was almost as if the programme was completing its own maintenance tasks.

  Having completed her task list well ahead of time Kate considered heading home at a reasonable hour for a change. Before working at the bank she had been a keen swimmer, but she hadn’t swum for the past several months.

  She also wanted to return a call to David, a friend who worked at another of the Investment banks in London’s financial district. He had asked her out via her answer machine last week. Kate smiled at the memory of finding his nervous message on her machine. She realised that she quite liked David and decided that she would enjoy dinner with him at some point.

  She reflected on the last few months at the bank. Having started the year in a mediocre position, with very little chance of promotion or additional responsibility she had suddenly accelerated to being head of department.

  She had no idea what the full story was behind her manager’s sudden fall from grace, and in some ways she felt sorry for him. She knew that this uncertainty would also be felt by the rest of her team who must be finding it hard to adjust to the sudden changes taking place.

  Outside of work, Kate’s life had been improving too. Despite receiving a decent salary, Kate had never been brilliant at money management, preferring instead to live for the day. Often, after a particularly bad day in the office she would treat herself to something in the vast underground shopping complex and more often than not put it on h
er bulging credit card balance.

  However, earlier in the week Kate had received her latest credit card bill and had been delighted to see that she had almost fully repaid her balance.

  She felt a lot happier than she had done in years, and she put a lot of that success down to her work on the C.A.R.L project. She was immensely proud of the programme, and the continued success that it was bringing. Kate wasn’t really interested in the financial performance of the system, but the intellectual challenge of putting it all together had been immense. It had taken many late nights of developing, and redeveloping the core programme to get C.A.R.L where it was today and Kate felt a very strong bond with the system.

  Smiling softly she finished her final checks for the day, turned her chair away from the terminal and moved towards the lift doors and home for the evening.

  ‘Good night C.A.R.L’ she called out just as the doors closed on her.

  GOODNIGHT KATE, quickly blinked the message on her console before turning off again.

  Chapter 16

  Canary Wharf, London

  Cathy and Ben’s animal home was about to close. They had been fighting its closure for a number of months, desperately trying to increase donations and revenue whilst reducing their spending on animal food and medical bills. Ben had returned to full time work, and was having to dedicate a significant chunk of his salary into running the home, food, vets fees etc.

  Cathy was devoted to the animal’s aid and even though she had given up work to volunteer full time at the charity she had started doing small pieces of work on the side just to make ends meet.

  A few days ago they had received a final demand from Global Entperises Bank. In the letter, their loan manager had asked them to visit on the 20th April, one week away to discuss the current situation. They had been dreading their forthcoming appointment at Global Enterprises ever since.

  Cathy and Ben knew that without an additional loan the home would have to close and all the animals either being destroyed or re-homed. Ben had argued about the need to take a further loan out on the site, but Cathy had walked him through the financial projections showing that without urgent repair to the centre, it would likely collapse within the next few years.

  The day duly arrived, and they arrived at their appointment 5 minutes earlier with a sense of foreboding. They were kept waiting until 10 minutes after their allotted appointment time before the banker came to see them.

  A busy, harassed looking junior banker in a sharp Saville row suit ushered them into a small windowless room. He introduced himself as Andreas Carllson, junior banker for Global Enterprises Bank.

  As he shook hands with the couple, Andreas mentally dismissed their application even before they started their conversation. He’d rejected that client with a 74% approval rating the other day, and he was confident that the system would decline this loan even before he started.

  ‘Now, Mr and Mrs Bridges, I can see here that you’ve applied to extend your loan for the Woodland Animal Home said Andreas as he pulled his chair to.

  ‘Yes, that’s correct’ replied Ben, wondering how long this meeting would take.

  ‘...and you’d like this additional funding for a period of 6 months’ Andreas murmured as he re-read through the couple’s application. He had already read the form once but when clients were in the office with him he liked to be doubly sure of their current position before seeking loan approval from C.A.R.L.

  ‘That’s right’ replied Cathy, unconsciously leaning forward in her seat. Cathy wondered if Andreas had any idea how important the bank’s decision on their additional funding was to their lives and to the animals they cared for.

  ‘Well, I can see a few problems with your application based on your current credit commitments but I’ll run your application through the computer now’ said Andreas, picking up their application form and moving it closer to a laptop positioned in the corner of his desk.

  Andreas started tapping quickly into his laptop, and his body language did not give the couple a huge amount of hope. In fact, you could almost picture Andreas lining up the next, hopefully richer client in his mind. To add to the tension Andreas starting humming whilst he typed away.

  ‘Ah yes, here’s the rejec... errm I mean loan approval response now’ said Andreas looking opened mouthed into his monitor screen. He had keyed several hundred loan applications during his time at Global Enterprises Bank and he would have put money on betting that this application would be rejected. After all, how was this couple going to increase their profit from their charitable work?

  Andreas was silent for a few moments whilst he got over C.A.R.L’s unexpected decision, but then professionalism took over and he turned to look at Cathy and Ben and continued.

  ‘We are prepared to offer you the requested amount for a fixed term at an interest rate of 2%, that’s a reduction from our standard loan rate of 18.9%. Would you like to proceed?’

  Ben and Cathy looked at the banker incredulously for a few seconds and then replied simultaneously ‘Yes please’.

  Andreas then dutifully filled in the final pieces of paperwork with the couple, and they left the bank a short while later knowing that the future of their animal shelter was secure for the time being.

  As they left the office, Andreas picked up the phone and reported C.A.R.L’s strange behaviour to the internal security team, headed up by David Hopkins.

  As they stepped out the front of the bank Cathy and Ben gave each other a spontaneous high five accompanied by a shout of ‘Yes!’ startling some of the Global Enterprise Bank employees who were not used to seeing such displays of customer happiness by their front door.

  Unbeknown to either the banker or the couple, the CCTV cameras scattered throughout the meeting rooms and corridors in the bank had recorded the entire thing.

  ***

  CALL ME A SOFTIE, BUT I LIKE ANIMALS. AND IT’S ALWAYS NICE TO SEE A HAPPY CUSTOMER...

  Chapter 17

  Canary Wharf, London

  It was early Monday morning, and after a really enjoyable weekend meeting up with her old University friends up in Bradford Kate wasn’t best pleased to be summoned into an urgent meeting with her team.

  She’d been called in by the bank’s head of Security, David Hopkins, an earnest type who always wore a permanent frown on his face. Kate respected David but he always seemed to blow all minor issues into a full crisis. This certainly hadn’t seemed to hold back his career at the bank. David had worked at Global Enterprises for the same amount of time as Kate had, but his career progression had been meteoric, rising from an I.T Security Analyst to head of I.T security in a little under 2 years.

  Perhaps David’s art of turning minor issues into huge crises had helped his rise to fame. Kate wondered why it was often the people who shouted loudest but didn’t actually solve the problems they were bringing to everyone’s attention who ended up with the huge promotions.

  Anyway, Kate doubted that he had good news to share with her this morning. Kate spotted David in the meeting room with the rest of her team waiting impatiently for her to arrive. He was pacing up and down in front of the meeting room, obviously impatient to begin the briefing.

  Either that or he just wanted to remind everyone what a busy man he was.

  She sped up her pace when he spotted her through the window and entered the room whilst she clutched her first coffee of the day.

  Before she sat down David began talking ‘We’ve got a problem with C.A.R.L’ he said to the urgently summoned I.T staff.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ asked lead programmer Chris Denver ‘system status reports shows normal across all fronts’.

  ‘We’ve had several reported incidents of ‘odd’ behaviour from C.A.R.L that I’d like investigated immediately’ said David.

  ‘What sort of odd issues?’ prompted Kate, who was feeling slightly annoyed that this was the first she had heard of problems with her system.

  ‘Well, as crazy as it sounds we’ve had reports that the system
is approving too many new business deals. It has been approving a wider range of loans than ever before and there are several cases where the approval doesn’t match its own lending criteria.’

  ‘Have customers been complaining about these decisions?’ asked Simon, another member of Kate’s team.

  David seemed monetarily put off by the question, but he quickly responded. ‘No, ironically we were alerted about this error after our Chief Executive received a thank you letter from some charity dog’s home. The CEO then rang me at home to ask why we were approving loans that were highly unlikely to ever be repaid so I called you all in for this meeting’. He paused momentarily to emphasise the fact that the bank’s CEO called him personally.

  ‘So, we’ve been called to an emergency meeting because people are happy?’ one of the programmers at the table muttered. Kate looked across but couldn’t see which of her team had said it. ‘I’m so glad that I cut short my holiday to help with this urgent disaster!’ murmured another employee. There were other murmurs of complaint around the room as several people discussed what they’d rather be doing at this moment in time.

  Unperturbed by the complaints David finished his speech. ‘Kate, this is a priority issue for the bank, and you are your team are now going to urgently review every line of C.A.R.L’s code looking for this bug and fix this issue before it gets out of hand. Can you imagine the impact it would have on our share price if word got out about our lending criteria being amended in favour of the customer? It would be a total disaster for our investors’.