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  • 13
    Feb
    2013
    10:58am, EST

    Century-old bank relies on one man and an adding machine

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter, CEO of Raiffeisen Gammesfeld eG bank, serves a customer at the counter of the bank in Gammesfeld, Baden-Wuerttemberg. Things do not seem to have changed much since the bank was founded in 1890.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter works with an old adding machine. The bank is not connected to a database system, there are no cash machines and its customer base consists only of residents of the town of Gammesfeld, which has a population of around 510.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Fritz Vogt, 82, who used to run the bank and still helps out with paperwork, writes into a savings book. During his time at the bank he rejected the idea of IT, preferring his trusty fountain pen, and now eyes the 'new' computer with its floppy disks warily.

    By Victoria Bryan, Reuters

    Peter Breiter, 41, is an unusual banker. Not for him the big bonuses, complicated financial instruments and multi-million deals of Wall Street lore.

    He is happy instead writing transaction slips out by hand for the 500 inhabitants of the tiny southern German village of Gammesfeld.

    The Raiffeisen Gammesfeld eG cooperative bank is one of the country's 10 smallest banks by deposits and is the only one to be run by just one member of staff.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter rolls euro coins in paper.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter mops the floor in the waiting room of the bank.

    A typical day's work for Breiter involves providing villagers with cash for their day-to-day needs and arranging small loans for local businesses. Not to mention cleaning the one-story building that houses the bank, which is 200 meters from his own front door.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter holds the floppy disks he uses now that the bank has a computer.

    Moving from a bigger bank, where it was all "sell, sell, sell," Gammesfeld-born Breiter says taking up this job in 2008 was the best decision he ever made.

    The advertisement required someone to work by hand, without computers. The typewriter and the adding machine bear the signs of constant use, although Breiter, in his standard work outfit of jeans and a sweater, does now have a computer.

    "It's so much fun," Breiter, a keen mathematician, says as he deals with a steady stream of lunchtime customers. He knows his customers by name and regularly offers advice on jobs, relationship and money woes.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    Peter Breiter, right, welcomes customer Mandes Rueger, 30, at the counter of the bank. Rueger, an insurance salesman, comes in around twice a week to use the bank.

    Raiffeisen Gammesfeld restricts its business to traditional retail banking --  no credit cards, shares, funds or even online banking. Annual profits are stable at around 40,000 euros ($54,000) and the biggest loan it ever made was for 650,000 euros ($875,000).

    Breiter said the financial crisis prompted interest in his bank from all over Germany: "One person rang up five times asking for a 4 million euro loan, but I had to refuse because he wasn't from Gammesfeld!" Read the full story.

    Photographer's blog: Lisi Niesner describes her visit to Germany's one-man bank

    EDITOR'S NOTE: Images taken on Jan. 29, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.

    Lisi Niesner / Reuters

    A Raiffeisen Gammesfeld eG bank stamp.

    Follow @NBCNewsPictures

    4 comments

    At my work we still have a DOS based database (Dbase 4) & it works great & YES we still use floppy disks. On my desk I have a Laptop using Windows 98SE & that way I can use our very fast database & also hop on the Internet. Now that is not to say that we don't have modern computers a …

    Show more
    Explore related topics: business, germany, economy, europe, bank, finance, world-news
  • 3
    May
    2012
    6:47pm, EDT

    Protesters in Miami clean garbage from foreclosed homes and dump it at bank

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Traci Jackson (2nd R) and others help clean up in front of a foreclosed home on May 3, 2012 in Miami, Florida. According to the Miami Workers Center, the home is owned by the Bank of America. The residents of the Liberty City neighborhood came together to clean up the abandoned property and later in the day planned on delivering the collected trash to a Bank of America branch. Trenise Bryant, a member of the Miami Workers Center who organized the event said, ''Banks maintain foreclosed properties in white neighborhoods why can't they do the same in black communities?'' ''It's bad enough these big banks put families out of their homes, now they just let the houses sit there bringing down the property value for everyone else in the neighborhood.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Hashim Yeomans-Benford places bags of garbage that had been collected from abandoned foreclosed home in front of a Bank of America branch during a protest organized by the Miami Workers Center on Thursday in Miami, Florida. The residents of the Liberty City neighborhood came together to clean up the abandoned property and later in the day planned on delivering the collected trash to a Bank of America branch.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Hermenia Nasser pushes a tire that had been collected from an abandoned foreclosed home to the front of a Bank of America branch during a protest organized by the Miami Workers Center.

    Reuters reported recently on bulk deals by Bank of America to sell foreclosed homes:

    Private equity firms and hedge funds are eyeing the foreclosed market because the homes can be acquired at a significant discount and then rented out for steady cash flow. While the market for purchasing single-family homes remains stagnant in the wake of the financial crisis, rental properties are a hot commodity and even deemed a new asset class.

    One advantage of a bulk offering by a bank is that investors are not required to hold onto the homes for an extended period of time.

    •Sign up for the msnbc.com Photos Newsletter

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    96 comments

    A great way to protest! The banks should be keeping properties up that they foreclose on. They are not. It was nice of all these people to "bag up the trash". It was delivered to the proper place. The banks should pay to have the trash picked up. This was an excellent protest.

    Show more
    Explore related topics: economy, bank, real-estate, us-news, foreclosure
  • 2
    Nov
    2011
    7:11pm, EDT

    Occupy protesters target downtown Oakland bank branches

    Kimihiro Hoshino / AFP - Getty Images

    An Occupy Oakland protester places an anti-violence message to the broken window of a Chase Bank branch in downtown Oakland, Calif. on Nov. 2, 2011

    Kimihiro Hoshino / AFP - Getty Images

    The Occupy Oakland protesters shout outside of a Wells Fargo bank branch in Oakland, Calif. in an attempt to shut down the bank as they call for a citywide general strike on Nov. 2, 2011.

    Ben Margot / AP

    A man shouts as he marches in an Occupy Oakland march on Nov. 2, 2011, in Oakland, Calif.

    Noah Berger / AP

    A small group of Occupy Oakland protesters smash windows at a Wells Fargo bank branch on Nov. 2, 2011, in Oakland, Calif.

    msnbc.com reports:

    OAKLAND, California — Thousands of Wall Street protesters marched in the streets of Oakland and picketed banks on Wednesday as they geared up to disrupt operations at the nation's fifth-busiest port.

    Demonstrators in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia held solidarity actions Wednesday.

    Read the full story here.

    The "Occupy" movement is now in its sixth week, and Wednesday the epicenter was back in Oakland, Calif., where people flooded the streets again in what they called a day-long strike to shut the city down. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

    10 comments

    Some of those guys in black are police provocateurs. Google search Police Infiltrators and Agent Provocateurs At Occupy Oakland, Documented Fact.

    Show more
    Explore related topics: bank, oakland, protests, us-news, occupy-wall-street, occupy-oakland
  • 15
    Jun
    2011
    11:13am, EDT

    Bank employees in Seoul, South Korea stage a well organized protest

    Ahn Young-Joon / AP

    Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) employees shout slogans during a protest to oppose the sale of a controlling stake in their bank to Hana Financial Group in front of the headquarters of the KEB in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, June 15, 2011. U.S. private equity group Lone Star Funds agreed in last November to sell its 51.02 percent stake in Korea Exchange Bank to South Korea's Hana Financial Group for 4.69 trillion won, or US$4.2 billion at current exchange rates. The letters on the headbands read "Defend Korea Exchange Bank."

    Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters

    Unionised workers from Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) hold a rally opposing Hana Financial Group's KEB acquisition plan and financial regulators' allowance of the plan, in front of the bank's headquarters in Seoul, June 15, 2011.

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

     Most protests look more chaotic than this one that took place in South Korea today.

    Comment

    Show more
    Explore related topics: bank, protest, south-korea, seoul, keb
  • 9
    Mar
    2011
    9:54am, EST

    Petros Giannakouris / AP

    Pedestrians walk past the headquarters of the Central Bank of Greece in Athens on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Athens hopes to negotiate lower interest rates and extensions in the repayment schedule for the loans, and the EU may offer such concessions as part of a comprehensive solution to the debt crisis expected to be unveiled at a March 25 summit in Brussels.

    Shaft of light and the Central Bank of Greece

    By Phaedra Singelis, NBC News

    Lucky photographer.

    Comment

    Show more
    Explore related topics: bank, greece, athens, debt-crisis

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Phaedra Singelis

is a Supervising Producer at NBC News.com Previously she worked as an editor at the New York Times and the Washington Post in addition to working as a photojournalist at numerous newspapers.

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