Page 234 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

to the company for advising us whether they have invested funds in their
subsidiary company in Finland. The company kept quiet. The other letter
was written after 3 days and got delivered informing that on not getting
response from the company, the bank had approached the RBI and found
that the remittance application had got forged signatures of our bank
officials. They were asked to meet the Branch Chief urgently failing which
an FIR would be lodged against the Chairman of the company for forgery
of documents.

Many borrowers fear criminal case and not a civil suit against them for
obvious reasons. This letter got an instant response. The Chairman of the
company met me for the first time at the branch. Instead of meeting our
bank Chairman only as per their protocol, he met me first before meeting
our Branch Chief. I told him that we had been requesting their GM
(Finance) for your meeting with our Chief but he told us about company
protocol that you would meet only our bank Chairman. He straightway
denied of any such statement from his side and blamed the GM (Finance).

He met our Chief who told him to regularize the account by paying up
the amount that was over the drawing power that was around Rs.15 crore
over and above our share in Drawing Power. He expressed inability to
do so immediately and asked for 3 months' time. The Chief did not agree
and gave him a fortnight for depositing 50% amount and another
fortnight for balance 50% amount. Surprisingly, their excess drawings from
our bank were liquidated by the company within a month under threat
of lodging criminal case against them. Our bank commended the efforts
and alacrity of the Branch Chief in making this recovery. The bank
sounded the borrower to find out other bank as we were not interested
to continue even as a member bank in the consortium.

Insights from the episode

1. Catch advance signals of a change to effectively manage it better.
2. Vigilance may reveal problems and also present solutions.
3. "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

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