Page 16 - Seniorstoday Sep 2024 Issue
P. 16

emphatically. Growth in any professional           requesting for FDS to be placed. She can
         firm is linked to the revenues that you are        view the bank balances of any customer and
         capable of generating for the firm. Those          must have seen the floats available in my
         who can handle the immense stress manage           account. September being a quarter end, the
         to stay on, those who cannot either burn out       bank needs to shore ups its CASA and FDs
         or exit. Shape up or ship out, if one were to      and the RM was under immense pressure
         jargonise. A counselling session with his          to deliver. In spite of all the logic against
         father, himself an ex-big 4 partner, and the       parking funds in FDs, I relented in a spirit
         writer, with more than adequate experience         of helping out a stressed RM.
         in the consultancy and corporate worlds,            A week ago, I was approached by a so-
         and practical tips to handle such situations       called ‘global’ organisation, professing
         assuaged Vijay somewhat, but hardly can            to give a low down on laws governing
         provide a lasting succour. No law firm or          companies and directors, to register for a
         consultancy or any other entity or company         digital conference free of any charges. Little
         is free from this monetisation malady.             wonder it piqued me enough to register,
          Your friendly bank relationship manager           only to be dismayed at the introduction
         is no different. You are as important to           stage itself that it is all a PR and self-
         her or him depending on the balances in            promotion exercise to advocate and lure
         your bank account and the fixed deposits           people into paying for expensive courses
         (possibly the lowest interest yielding             and pie-in-the-sky kind of opportunities.
         financial instrument) you place with the           Since then, I have been spammed with
         bank. Banks are merely traders in your             repeated messages enticing me to sign up
         money and without your money they                  for their course. Eventually, I had to block it
         cannot exist or earn any spreads in their          to get a reprieve.
         lending or other banking activities. This is        Many of us would have seen too-good-to-
         the reason that every bank works towards           be-true flagrant posts on FB or WhatsApp,
         shoring up its balance sheet by increasing         dishing out tips on multi-bagger shares
         CASA amounts (current accounts and                 or investment advisory, promising you
         saving accounts) and fixed deposits.  One          stratospheric returns. These are all posted
         of the key result areas of a bank’s RM is          by dubious entities and persons. Just
         to shore up these and their incentives             imagine lakhs of people falling for it and
         are linked to that. I recently got a fervent       paying up subscription fees in the greed
         call from my RM, a newly assigned one,             to earn high returns. They will simply
                                                            disappear after they have lured you into
                                                            paying up thousands of rupees. Just
                                                            imagine the multiplier effect on these cons’
                                                            coffers.
                                                             Many would have similarly seen
                                                            thousands of posts on social media offering
                                                            some exciting product or the other. The
                                                            canny would know that any of these posters
                                                            (or imposters, if one may) who does not
                                                            offer ‘Cash on Delivery’ system of payment


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