Page 187 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

documents through a bank in future. This would surely affect their export
business as they will not get bank lines against bills sent to such unwilling
buyers.

But we persisted that it was being done in their interest only. Their
standard defence as well as offensive against us was as to why only we
were behaving crazy when no Manager had sent such follow-up reminders
to their buyers for several years in the past.

It was really a great respite when a couple of customers took our step in
a positive manner and called up to express their approval on our sending
reminders to their buyer clients. They reported that their buyers had
started paying in time. What they wanted to do but could not do for fear
of spoiling business relations with buyers, had been done by the bank
on their behalf. They could convince their buyers just blaming the bank
for sending such reminders.

A Customer having a lone buyer in New Zealand
There was one customer with a single buyer in New Zealand who had
been sanctioned an Export Bills Purchase Facility for HKD one million.
He had only single buyer for his trading goods in New Zealand. Having a
single buyer was treated a very high concentration of risk in one buyer,
hence, the bank had obtained 100% security by way of fixed Deposit of
HKD one million. Until we landed, there were no issues in this
arrangement.

I observed that the lone buyer in New Zealand had a peculiar pattern for
more than a year. He was not paying the bills in time. The delay was
increasing as the months passed by. I had sent the notice to this buyer
also. Our customer called me up and complained why we should write
to the buyer when the bank had 100% cover by way of their fixed
deposits.

I explained to him, "I was not worried for bank's safety but worried for you

184 | A Banker down the Rabbit Hole