Banks and killing machines

Here is a recent story.

Y Yadaiah, 42, an electrician in the state medical and health department, had defaulted on a Rs 15,000 personal loan he had taken from ICICI Bank a few months ago.

Police inspector G Narasaiah said one Raju from Elite Financial Services â?? the loan-recovery agency which has a contract with ICICI Bank â?? along with some others, picked up Yadaiah from his office on Friday. Sunanda, the wife, said

Yadaiah had called her up sometime later, saying the recovery agents had detained him at their office. â??He was told he would not be allowed to leave until he returned the money,â? she said. Around 2 pm, Sunanda received a message from a hospital saying her husband had died.

Then ICICI Bank comes back and says this.

The ICICI bank said on Sunday that the 42-year-old Andhra Pradesh government employee, who had taken a loan from it, died after he felt â??unwellâ? at the office of its debt recovery agency in Hyderabad.

One would be inclined to give benefit of doubt to the bank but then if you also see this then you start thinking what kind of bank is this, people go there and start dying like flies.

This is the second incident in the last month in Nashik, where a person lost his life due to al leged harassment by recovery agents.

Suresh Chaudhari, a 54-year-old mechanic, died on the premises of ICICI Bank on January 13. His family alleged that the death was caused due to harassment by agents. The police filed cases against three ICICI Bank employees.

Recovery tactics employed by banks are increasingly coming under the scanner. The SC, on January 7, had strongly deplored the practice of financial institutions using musclemen to recover loans from defaulters and asserted that recovery of loans should be through legal means.

Some more.

Close to a fortnight after the Supreme Court deplored the use of musclemen to recover loans from alleged defaulters, 42-year-old computer engineer Manish Rajguru passed away due to the alleged use of strong-arm tactics and mental harassment by recovery agents of Nashik Merchant Co-operative Bank.

"We were facing increased harassment from the banks employees as well as the recovery agents deployed by the bank during the last one month. Manish had been tense and nervous due to the behavior of the recovery agents who would barge into our house and abuse us. The tension proved too much for him and yesterday he suddenly collapsed and passed away. I hold the bank responsible for his death," Manish's wife Dr Devang Rajguru a MD in Pathology told HT.

Manish's death was caused by cerebral haemorrhage. Manish is survived by two children and a cancer afflicted mother.

Not that it is an isolated incident. Here are some more barrage of cribs.

I cant help but credit ICICI bank for coming up with the punch line "hum hain na" apko loot ne ke liye...

Here is one more.

The very next day he had deposited the cheque in his account in the ICICI Bank, Mayur Vihar. When, after a few days, he checked with the bank, he found the cheque had not been credited to his account. He immediately contacted Vijaya Bank, Noida, which had issued the cheque.

Imagine Manojâ??s shock when he learnt that the cheque had been encashed. It was found that his name had been struck off and that of `Suresh Kumarâ?? had been written instead. The overwriting on the cheque had been clearly endorsed by fresh signature of the issuing person at two places.

Manoj has lodged a complaint with the Noida as well as the Delhi police while bank officials are maintaining a silence on the issue.

Here is another laundry list of problems.

But one things has to be said about them, they are not racist. They are trying to cheat every country equally. See here.

There are several reasons. The main one is that, despite having a presence in the UK for three years, ICICI Bank still do not comply with the UK Banking Code, which sets minimum standards for customer service. The second reason - related to the first - is that there is a load of anecdotal evidence that customers are still struggling to receive passwords, to have money transfers happen on time and of people generally tearing their hair out trying to get their savings sorted.

So, in the end what do I have to say about it. You become a customer of ICICI bank, they will abduct and get you into their office and then you will die and it will be a natural death. Why senior management of the bank are not taken to task for doing such goofy things. Why are they above law. At times I feel that reason that they have grown so much is because they are above law.

Here is another bright idea that I have, if you take loan with ICICI bank then take a really large pure term insurance policy also with them so that if they claim in the end that your death was natural, they would atleast have to pay for it.