Apropos Debashis Basu's column "Protecting customers from 'banksters'" (Irrational Choice, June 3), the word "banksters" rhymes with another word so well that it takes the meaning from it. While reading the article, I almost thought that the writer was describing my experience with private banks. Once my interest due was so cleverly siphoned away that I had to write a fireball of a letter to the topmost official of the bank. Pat came a call from one of its very senior officers, and I got my interest back. But why should such things happen? Reporting profits for a bank is fine, but not by playing upon the confidence of its customers. The so-called "relationship managers" have been let loose on unsuspecting customers. They gain access to the customers' residences, citing all sorts of imaginary stories such as the KYC is not updated or the demat account is not being used. And once you make an appointment and give your PAN card number (which has been given many times earlier), the relationship manager encourages you to invest in some junk third-party products. If you go to the bank, at the first opportunity, the counter-clerks will ask you to invest. Then the calls from these private banks are a daily menace. Newspapers like Business Standard should do more to expose the attitude of these banks and save customers from banks constantly chasing them to make investments.
Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, New Delhi
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