Page 182 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

I had many sleepless nights to resolve the issue of the large value cheque
of USD 350,000/-. My training and study of banking law and practice helped
me to detect the blunder the same evening and we started to manage the
matter very promptly and were on it constantly till it was resolved. So far,
our higher office did not know what had been happening in this customer's
account. We also did not report the matter to them as we had managed
to save any loss to the bank by prompt corrective measures.

We waited for several months but there was no claim fortunately. Luck
would have it that one claim for refund for amount of cheque for £ 15000
was sent by the overseas bank to our country head in Hong Kong. He
immediately asked for a detailed report in the matter as to how it had
happened. We had the money held in the blocked account of customer
and we debited the same and paid to the claiming bank.

The Branch Head explained the exact happenings and convinced him that
it was not the mistake of the Expatriate Manager but it was an old wrong
practice at the branch, of collecting such cheques for customer's account.
There was an established past practice and no questions were asked by
previous Managers and fortunately enough, no problems were faced in
past as cheques were of small amounts. The Junior Manager was not
educated by anyone about the consequences of collection of such
cheques and she did not exercise caution. When the matter came to light,
all possible measures were taken immediately and loss could be saved.
Even the amount of all such cheques has been blocked and we had paid
this claim from the account of the customer.

I thanked my Branch Head who supported us and suitably explained to
the Country Head about the circumstances of the case. For my remaining
tenure at Hong Kong, no more refund claims were received by us. I also
thanked God for saving the bank from any loss that in turn saved my job
along with that of the concerned Junior Manager.

— z —

A Banker down the Rabbit Hole | 179