The following is from a South African perspective. But I think it is probably true in most countries in the world.
The South African banks have a thing they call the "Banking code of conduct" Why it is there is everyone's guess because that is all it is - a piece of paper. If you read it it sounds like a marvelous piece of prose but as you go on reading it you get this funny gut feel that it has been written by bankers for bankers. The clients are only there by accident. It is so biased that it becomes abundantly clear that already here the banks are paving the way for the handling of "distressed" accounts.
I have been vicious with my comments on banks and rightly so. Just a bit of background on that comment :
I worked for a bank for over 30 years and there is such a major difference from the time I started in 1967 to the time I left in 1999 that I could just as well changed from one industry (a client focused one) to another (Totally self centered) It has become worse since................
Without going into detail my own experience is the proof that what I say is reality.
All the nice words and service levels the banks purport to have disappears the moment your account become "distressed" Your status change from "Client" to problem in seconds flat once you miss a payment. Where the banks came up with this word is a mystery but it so applicable and confirms my point above about the change in bank's focus over time that I have to explain a bit about this.
The South African banks have a thing they call the "Banking code of conduct" Why it is there is everyone's guess because that is all it is - a piece of paper. If you read it it sounds like a marvelous piece of prose but as you go on reading it you get this funny gut feel that it has been written by bankers for bankers. The clients are only there by accident. It is so biased that it becomes abundantly clear that already here the banks are paving the way for the handling of "distressed" accounts.
I have been vicious with my comments on banks and rightly so. Just a bit of background on that comment :
I worked for a bank for over 30 years and there is such a major difference from the time I started in 1967 to the time I left in 1999 that I could just as well changed from one industry (a client focused one) to another (Totally self centered) It has become worse since................
Without going into detail my own experience is the proof that what I say is reality.
All the nice words and service levels the banks purport to have disappears the moment your account become "distressed" Your status change from "Client" to problem in seconds flat once you miss a payment. Where the banks came up with this word is a mystery but it so applicable and confirms my point above about the change in bank's focus over time that I have to explain a bit about this.
Distress
"a very difficult situation in which you do not have enough money, food,
etc."
It has
a synonym that is more ominous : misfortune
It also
means "unhappiness" or "desperate need"
The
definitions above implies that here is someone in need of empathy - Now that is
not in the vocabulary of the banks no matter how hard they try to create that
impression.
The
recent failure of African bank and the debacle over the R699 car scam is proof
of that.
There
is no doubt that the banks helped create the situation where thousands of
clients are now distressed. This is very evidently reckless lending. Just
the fact that one bank (Wesbank) saw this scheme from the beginning as Ponzi
scheme makes one wonder who bribed who and who got money from where
The
composition of the collections process of the bank does not make provision for
empathy
Once an
account is handed over to "legal" or "collections" there is
only one instruction that stands out like a sore eye : Get our money back - by
hook or by crook !
Isn't
it time that one bank changes all of this and totally restructure their
collections methods? What happened to zero base thinking - If they do not know
what that means : Here it is:
You take
everything you do about collections and you dump it in the garbage bin.
And you start from scratch as if there never was a system . Zero - Get
experts not in the banking system to help with this - I am free and retired and
I do not want a massive salary - but I have the experience - And by the way I
am not looking for a job.
