by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Carlo Iarusso

Age: 28

Occupation: Banker (bank name withheld by request)

Bio: This dandy downtown dynamo claims he's always wanted to work in the banking biz, as a youth having ventured all the way to the Netherlands to obtain his master's degree in the field. Financial planning, selling mutual funds, extending your line of credit - these are but a few of the exciting things that make up Carlo's days. A former busboy in a local Italian restaurant, he now gets around in a 1999 Volkswagen Golf and claims his "main [work] objective is to humanize the bank - which I've yet to succeed in doing, of course."

Do many personal finance sessions end up with Carlo suggesting personal bankruptcy as the only way his client will ever be free of all the debt they owe his bank? No. "Bankruptcy isn't generally a very good option. Actually, debt consolidation is the one part of the job I don't really like. Usually the customer is in disbelief about where all their money has gone and then starts sobbing in my office - which is when I play psychiatrist and tell them that it's not so bad, that there are options. You know, it's not because you're in the hole that I'm going to put my feet on my desk and say ‘Now we're going to crush you.' No, instead I'm going to try and help you find solutions."

One task he does way more regularly than one might hope: Break the news to people that that e-mail they got from Nigeria offering them $1-million in exchange for their banking information is a scam. "They call me the dream breaker at work. Still, some people won't believe it's a fraud, and say I'm just jealous of them because I've never received my own e-mail telling me I'd just won $1-million. Most of these people are extremely excited and have already spent the money in their head."

How this well-worn scam works: "The crooks ask for all your banking and personal info so they can deposit your million bucks into your account. Your bank automatically puts a hold on the funds the crooks send you, but you've already agree to pay, say, $10,000 in fees to the criminals. As soon as the thieves get the 10-grand, they pull the million back out of your account, which is easy because now they have all your banking information. They walk away with your money, plus they've stolen your identity."

Is banking stressful? "Absolutely. When I go to bed at night, all I see in my head are graphs, stock portfolios, pie charts, percentages going up and down. I tell you, come RRSP time, I often come in to work unshaven and not even realize it. It's all because I really want things to work out for my clients. And that's a lot of pressure."

Where he hangs: Café Italia on St-Laurent.

Musical preferences: Pavarotti, Lucio Dalla.

Last book read: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.

Words of wisdom: "He who goes safely, goes surely."

Comments? dimwit@openface.ca