The bank has asked my friend to take his business elsewhere. Surprisingly as it sound, that is exactly what they said in the elegant words written on the snail mail. But he is not surprised as he has a good understanding on the reasons why his account is shutdown. It was as the result of helping his fellow expatriates.
My friend works for one of widely known consulting firms located in Europe. Unlike the rest of us, he is going to be here in France for a very long time. The rest of us have a shorter shelf life. So, my friend doubles up as the go-to person or the man who lights the path for the rest of us. All of us go to him for small favors. He obliges.
One such favor was of a financial nature. Some of his friends are here for “business”. But here, the “business” is carried over a period of 3 months or more. In such cases, you can’t open a bank account. So, these friends asked my friend to keep the money in his savings account. The money is safe in the bank and you get a negligible amount in interest. My friend as usual obliged. When he was depositing the money, the bank questioned him about the source. Normally, a person should develop a cold feet. But my friend was brave. He declared it as a loan.
It has been over three months since this incident. The bank has closed his account!
Picture Courtesy: http://www.artfire.com
Tags: Musings,Bank,Expatriate
I like the words on that image. Its very intimidating! Where did you get that image from?
ReplyDelete@ScorpioGenius - I got it from the net. I have updated the post with "Picture Courtesy" that gives you a link to the website.
ReplyDeleteWell, in the age of recession, the bank's are getting ultra sensitive about such things.
ReplyDeleteHope your friend found another bank.
Well, being a banker and a branch head to boot, I know the waters on the side of the line. We are dealing with an amazingly large number of tech savvy fraudsters compared to what it was barely a decade back. The problem has compounded with the introduction of centralized banking, ATMs and Internet services. And if you know the (Indian) police, bank officials are the prime suspects by default. Banks have thus clamped down on dubious customers/dealings all over the globe.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about the banking rules in France but I guess the bank did not believe in the loan proposition from an expatriate. Since AML (anti money laundering acts) are very strictly followed in developed countries the bank I guess decided to play safe.
ReplyDelete