Editorial
Depositors being questioned?
Excessive caution can be counterproductive
Finance Adviser Mirza Azizul Islam has hit the nail on the head. He drew the attention of the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) to their clients being grilled about sources of money they came to deposit with them. In case where the amount is Tk one lac or above, the intending depositor would be questioned by an NCB for an hour or so about the source of his/her money. Naturally, the person feels harassed and shrivels. And as the word gets around genuine depositors could have second thoughts and might shy away from having anything to do with banks. Deposits are the bank's raison détre.It is therefore quite understandable why the finance adviser has reprimanded the NCBs, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that an ambience of stifling over caution exists in the financial sector as a whole. Bangladesh Bank has issued circulars from time to time to the banks alerting them to suspicious financial dealings etc. In a situation like this two things can happen: either the officials feel cramped in their style or they turn out to be overzealous misapplying the rules. All this is hindering smooth functioning of the financial sector. The atmosphere of apprehension and fear is leading to a dwindling of public confidence in the banking sector, perhaps, in no less a degree than had been the case with banks having promoted default culture earlier on and weakened themselves from inside out. As it is, the customer service in the NCBs as compared with that of the private banks has drawn considerable flak for their laid back attitude. And now comes this grilling as an insult to injury. It is against the norms of corporate culture to deal with the customers like some suspicious offenders. The finance adviser, the central bank and the commercial banks must get their act together to make the banking system more customer-friendly.
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