This refers to the editorial "Remember Caesar's wife" (March 18) and the question raised about the effectiveness of the governance mechanism of banks in the context of the Cobrapost revelations. One of the ways in which this mechanism can be strengthened is by giving an open access to customers who would want to bring the system's lacunae to the attention of the top management. Unfortunately, my experience with two of the three banks affected by the revelations has been unsatisfactory. Here are their email responses (reproduced verbatim) to my attempts to escalate the system deficiencies:
"We have noted your valuable feedback and competent authority will take a decision on the same at appropriate time. Since the nature of feedback is generic, we request you to consider it closed from your side. Please let us know if you have any specific requirement. We will be glad to assist you."
And, "We have noted your suggestion, and will ensure that it reaches the concerned team. It will be evaluated for its implementation, and if found feasible, will be incorporated in the near future."
In effect, the customer is politely asked to shut up. Even when it comes to Know Your Customer (KYC), banks have an absolutely pedestrian approach. In my case, a cheque book couriered to me was returned undelivered wrongly by the courier company with a remark "consignee shifted". This should have put the bank on guard and it should have taken steps to revisit my KYC and re-verify my address. But that did not happen. The ongoing investigations may as well exonerate the banks of any fault in the present revelations. But the way their systems are organised, it may not be too long before another one puts them in a tight spot.
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"We have noted your valuable feedback and competent authority will take a decision on the same at appropriate time. Since the nature of feedback is generic, we request you to consider it closed from your side. Please let us know if you have any specific requirement. We will be glad to assist you."
And, "We have noted your suggestion, and will ensure that it reaches the concerned team. It will be evaluated for its implementation, and if found feasible, will be incorporated in the near future."
In effect, the customer is politely asked to shut up. Even when it comes to Know Your Customer (KYC), banks have an absolutely pedestrian approach. In my case, a cheque book couriered to me was returned undelivered wrongly by the courier company with a remark "consignee shifted". This should have put the bank on guard and it should have taken steps to revisit my KYC and re-verify my address. But that did not happen. The ongoing investigations may as well exonerate the banks of any fault in the present revelations. But the way their systems are organised, it may not be too long before another one puts them in a tight spot.
Uday Thakurdesai Pune
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number