Banking & Finance: The Necessary Evil

Indian banks have been in the news for all the wrong reasons, which range from non-performing assets to managerial incompetence to corporate governance. But that’s all “high-level” talk that only the “educated” can understand. For the common man, the problems are different.

The ghost of the PMC scam is still fresh in our minds, where innocent depositors had to suffer. But one doesn’t have to wait for such a scam to suffer grave inconvenience. Most of us tolerate it in our day-to-day dealings with Indian banks. 

I had my first account opened many years ago with a government-backed bank. At that time, the facility of internet banking wasn’t much developed, so I had to visit the bank’s branch. The bank staff used to be arrogant and dealt with customers as if they are doing them a favor. You would frequently find them complaining that the printer was not working or the server was down, so you couldn’t get your work done. 

Times changed. Private banks started occupying the space once dominated by public-sector banks. But their advent has not been free from problems. They are mostly deficient on the service front and ultra aggressive about sales. If you call a private bank, you will probably have to wait for a long time before you get connected. However, we all receive numerous sales calls for credit cards. 

The transaction infrastructure is also a problem. While both private and public banks advertise their “robust” digital backbone, you get to experience the robustness when you actually transact. Dropped online transactions lock in your money for several days. I have personally written to the disputes-resolution department of a private bank to claim my amounts from such dropped transactions. I can tell you from experience that the process is a pain.

The other day someone told me how the bank deducted Rs 25,000 from his bank account as loan-processing charges. The person had no clue about them. Perhaps the bank salesperson had concealed them. Most banking products have such hidden clauses dumped somewhere in the contract. You get to know about them when they hit you.

In the digital era, it’s unthinkable to deal in cash or to store cash. So, you will have to deal with the banking system. Hence, be utmost cautious. You can conveniently assume that banks and finance companies are never honest and there is always hidden stuff. Caveat emptor.