Page 278 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

80. Application of learning -Penalty

for prepayment of loan

T he opportunity to apply the above learning arrived fast within

a month. We got a letter from Stan chart to deposit a
prepayment penalty amounting to SGD 40,000 approx. for
home loan repaid recently. That was a huge amount if
converted to Indian currency @ Rs. 30/- then. I prepared a letter to Stan
chart requesting waiver of penalty on the following grounds:
1. We needed more credit lines for our company. We had requested
you, first of all, to grant us credit lines based on equity of home loan
as substantial part of the loan had been repaid. But due to some
reasons, you could not grant us the amount of credit lines we had
required.
2. Due to the above reason, we repaid the loan and approached
Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) who granted us the desired
credit lines on the security of the flat released from your bank.
3. We had an excellent repayment record of our home loan account
with you.
4. Further, we have every possibility of having banking relationship with
you again in future also.
5. In light of the multiple factors explained above, we request you to
value our past relationship and waive the prepayment penalty
entirely.

I put up the letter to the boss for his signatures. He said, "Stan Chart is
very strict and they will not agree to waive the charges. We need not
write to them?" I told him "I have already spent one hour on finalizing
this letter. I have given very logical reasons with a request to waive. Let

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