All under one roof

Assessing the new-generation banks' claims to being your one-stop money managers.
Gautam Chikermane
THOSE SEVEN bright red pieces–five triangles, one square and one parallelogram–represent a bank. Invented in China two millenniums ago, the game of Qiqiaoban (seven clever pieces), now popular as Tangram, was designed to tickle the analytical abilities of children. The myriad shapes–of people, objects, letters, numbers, ideas–that these seven modest-looking pieces can morph into boggles the imagination. Quite like the transformation your bank has undergone does.
Hardly a decade ago, that bank, a service-less PSU entity, was only good to park your salary and some fixed deposits; if you were a collateral-backed businessman, you used the bank to borrow money. Your ‘relationship’ with the bank depended on the level of intimacy with the bank manager, your ‘contact’; the perks were mostly quicker service–often, simply service.
Today, the bank has outgrown the confines of a branch building and traditional ‘service’. It is no longer the lowly safe-keeper of your salary. It aggressively pursues you with offers of loans to buy homes, cars, consumer goods. It sells you mutual funds and insurance. If you’re reasonably well-off, it aspires to manage all your investments. It pays your bills. What next? It will probably offer to pick up your children from school.
Opinion in Outlook Money

A Matter Of Choice

ATM cards were free.ATM-cum-debit cards aren't. Some like the add-ons, others don't need it. All have to pay. Fair? A debate.
Gautam Chikermane
But I don’t want power steering in my car... Yes, I know it will make driving easier... Yes, I know it’s the latest technology... Yes, I know it’s the future, but I’m perfectly happy with my current status... No, I don’t need any upgrades...
SOUNDS FAMILIAR? Isn’t this a common refrain, no matter what the product? If it’s not cars, it’s something else. In this case, it’s your ATM card, that kind piece of plastic that revolutionised banking and made your life so much simpler. Even better, it comes free. As it should, you’d imagine–after all, it’s only a tool that lets you access your own money. But it looks like the party may be over: some foreign banks have taken the lead in charging customers for the use of their new-generation ATM-cum-debit cards. Did you say: ‘...but I don’t need a debit card’. You are not alone, but these banks are not listening. When your plain-vanilla ATM card lapses, like it or not, you’ll be handed an ATM-cum-debit card, and billed Rs 100-150 a year for its use.
For most of you who read this magazine, paying Rs 100-150 a year will not hurt. (On the other hand, it will add up to Rs 30 crore to the profits of some of these banks.) It’s, then, a matter of principle that we are talking about.
Story in Outlook Money