University Daily Kansan, October 10, 1980
Student bankers find profit in competition
By VANESSA HERRON Staff Reporter
Five KU graduate students who won first place in a national bank simulation game will fly to New Orleans this month to claim their trophy.
The students, who were officers of the fictitious Jayhawk State Bank, learned this week that they had defeated seven of them in the third and final round of competition.
Since last May, the Jayhawk State Bank and 100 other teams from universities and professional banks have competed for the largest share of the consumer market and the largest profits.
The officers of the Jayhawk Bank are Larry Baughman, Fairway; John Dewey, David Fisher; Lawrence; She Waewe; Lexa; and Karen Wehner, Eudora.
All five students are working toward master's degrees in business administration. Since May, they have worked together, in five-hour sessions twice a month to create the most successful bank in the market.
**AMONG THE BANKS that competed**
in the final round that began in September.
Co. of Chicago and the Bank of California in San Francisco.
"I guess we won because we paid more attention to techniques that bankers use, or should use, in making decisions," said Decoursey, the Jayhawk State Bank's vice president in charge of investment.
In the game, the team made tactical decisions about investment, lending, advertising and pricing.
The object of the game was to earn the highest return on equity, he said. In other words, the bank with the highest profits wins.
The Jayhawk State Bank earned a 14 percent return on equity in the first round, and the return steadily grew to 15.13 percent by the final round.
"we probably had the highest essay," he said, "and that's what we were whooo-oh."
LAST FRIDAY, THE team mailed its final strategy to the Business and Management Foundation of Maryland, the firm that sponsored and judged the competition with Olson Research Coates, a Maryland consulting firm.
In its final strategy,the bank lowered
its interest rate on savings accounts to 4
percent, 1 percent below that of most other banks in the competition and in real life, Decoursey said.
"If a bank had done that in real life," he said, "they probably would have gone broke."
Banks that offer low interest rates on savings accounts lose customers fast, he said.
"The game doesn't take customer relations into consideration," he said. "It teaches you how to use banking systems to make the largest profit." profit.
Many banks and banking schools use the game to train employees, said Nancy Buschman, assistant professor of business and the KU team's adviser.
LAST SPRING, BUSCHMAN offered students a chance to play the bank simulation game in exchange for one hour of credit.
As the final round began last month, Buschman said, most of the bank members thought the game was time-consuming but rewarding.
In two weeks, the students will be rewarded again with an all-expense paid vacation.
Management Association Conference in New Orleans.
The students probably will give their trophy to the KU School of Business, Decourse said.
Two of the students work part time at local banks, and this semester Decourse is taking his first bank management course at KU.
He said the practical experience he gained as a Jayhawk bank officer had not helped him master the banking theory taught at KU.
"I just had a test in that class, and I don't think I did very well," he said.
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