Chapter 165: Complex Procedures

The words "New York" had a magical effect at this moment!

At the mention of New York, there was a visible sparkle in Licolise's eyes. But in the next moment, she remembered the scenes from this period, where she couldn't find anyone whenever she needed help. Quietly, she withdrew her intention to twist her body and pouted softly:

"What kind of business is it that you can't handle yourself? I doubt I can be of any help."

"No, no, it's not difficult! I've just been really busy lately, and the homework has piled up. I'll probably be busy for a while longer."

So please, help a buddy out and find me a few gunmen to take care of my homework.

How should he put this?!

Cart was a bit conflicted. As someone who had to maintain a certain image, if he said something like that or even suggested such a thing for such a trivial matter, he might as well go and threaten those poor "gunmen" directly. Why go through such a big circle?

"Just for this? You'll help me with my homework, and I'll take you to New York?"

As Cart hesitated, caught between his thoughts, Licolise, with a puzzled look on her face, suddenly spoke up.

She knew Cart had money, but she had never seen him so generous in matters like this. He was even a bit stingy, like the time they went to Atlanta, and this little rich man stayed at a motor inn!

So, was this the sun rising from the west? Or was it April Fool's Day?

"Got it! Today is April 1st, April Fool's Day prank, right?"

"No, it's not! Seriously, as long as you help me with my homework, I don't care how you do it, just don't let Mrs. Mary find out. I promise to take you to New York for the summer vacation, and I'll cover the expenses. Deal?"

Slapping his forehead, Cart suddenly realized it was indeed April Fool's Day, and it wasn't even noon yet. Reluctantly, Cart could only show a hint of sincerity and then subtly hint to Licolise:

"Really? What's your motive? I always feel like you have some ulterior motive!"

"Not really, not really. But there will be something for you to do when the time comes. I see you're studying secretarial skills now. I have some events in New York, and you can be my temporary secretary."

Almost as soon as he saw the urban lady Licolise, Cart thought of the opening ceremony of Julian's new company. Taking Licolise along, right? Stand behind him as his secretary, and his boss image would soar, right?

It would make a grand appearance in front of the new employees for the first time, right?

Of course, the most important thing was to enjoy some delicacies!

"Are you asking me to be your secretary?"

"As a temporary job, yes!"

Seeing Cart's reaction behind his enthusiasm, Licolise understood the implications. But even though she saw through it, she didn't say much.

She just nodded slightly in a slightly cold tone in response to Cart's request. Caught off guard by Licolise's sudden change in attitude, Cart didn't have the mind to delve deeper into it and left the classroom hurriedly after dropping off his homework.

Cart's busy schedule wasn't just an excuse. As April unfolded, with various plans gradually moving forward, he really had no time to spare.

Almost as soon as the dismissal bell rang, Cart, who had finished a day of classes, immediately packed up his bag and left for the car.

"Have you ordered the Fedwire terminal equipment from the Federal Reserve?"

"It's been ordered! But we might need to buy some more equipment to fully utilize its value."

Back at the bank, Cart's first task was to confirm the equipment issues with Goodman. Naturally, to connect to the Fed's transfer and payment network, corresponding ports were needed.

In Cart's imagination, in an era before the World Wide Web, computers were hardly ever networked professional tools. So, the way to access this system might be a special telegraph system.

"What other equipment do we need? What's the situation?"

Entering the office with Goodman, Cart asked as he set down his bag.

"It's not essential equipment, but having it would greatly improve our efficiency. Today, I contacted some people from the Atlanta Fed, and they told me that the communication method for this Fedwire system has changed from Morse code transmission to electronic communication. Not only can it handle transfers and clearances, but it can also provide financial information services such as government bond issuance and changes, as well as management and research information from the Fed system."

"That's a good thing. You mean this thing could only receive before and couldn't display?"

Nowadays there was electronic communication?!

Wasn't the internet, the World Wide Web, introduced in the 1990s?

Cart felt that his knowledge was insufficient. He knew that the United States was advanced at this time, but it didn't seem that advanced in his impression.

"Not quite. The terminal machine for the Fedwire system does display. It's just that I heard from the Atlanta Fed staff that they've embedded the ACH system in this system now. This ACH system is for small-batch settlements. With this, we won't need much manual processing for our check settlements."

"But to make the machine read the checks, they said we must have a mechanical check sorting reader to read the MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) code on the checks, and then transfer this check information to the computer through a special interface, and then from the computer to the Fedwire system terminal."

"Wait, wait, you're rattling off so much, I'm getting a bit dizzy. Are you saying that to make checks electronically transactable, we must have this reader and a computer, right?"

Used to simply open a webpage and enter a password to perform various operations, Cart felt a bit dizzy listening to Goodman's complex process. And then he thought of another problem:

"Also, if I get a computer, do we have anyone in our bank who can operate it?"

In Cart's memory, Windows 98 was the earliest computer operating system he had encountered. He heard there was something called DOS and Unix before that.

These things, Cart had never seen before. And he didn't think there was anyone in Blake Bank who could operate these things proficiently.

"No, we don't."

Goodman shrugged candidly.

"Okay, I got it. Let's buy it. I can handle the personnel and computer issues. Anything else?"

"Mr. Clifford called this afternoon and said the chefs recruited from Venezuela and Honduras have arrived. He took them to the store."