Banks getting out of line

THE EDITOR: Banking is not an instrument of social control and managing people's wealth on banks' terms or the Government's terms. There are some aspects of banking to do with managing banks' assets and liabilities that impose on the bank and the Central Bank, but assets and liabilities belonging to customers are a different category.

Customer banking is a contract of confidence at arm's length dealing with things in the ownership and control of the customer. There are a number of ways for banks to offend such banking obligations:

A guard at the door asking the customer to state his business. Account representatives who never come to the telephone. The insistence of using e-transactions where no-one has any duty to be on the internet or have a computer.

The constant charging of absurd fees for the smallest actions, arbitrarily displacing other acts that cost very little like a phone call. Denying the full powers of cheques/endorsement.

The "handling" of "relationships" and "encounters" along the lines of authority psychology, not lawful commercial contracting and basic happy, cost-effective respect. Bank authority kept out of reach of the customer with bank agent conditioned on a modality of strictures. Over-reaching with disclosure. Government inducing banks to do this as a condition for getting special money-market access.

Breaching principle and law, banks then are no longer working for their product and bearing the costs due to their side of the equation.

Not all banks do these all at once. However, there may be one or two banks whose new rollouts are leading them into this psycho-trolling of people and their money.

E GALY

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