Happy Birthday Bank of Baroda

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Because it is your first day we will not take money from you. This was a statement expressed with equally pleasant face after I had sweet jalebies and phapda the typical afternoon eats of Guajarati though it was not my typical food then.

Today when I look back at the incident of 1979 in that small town of Navsari, where I was sent on a training for branch banking the learning in banking is minimal and on human values and relationship is vital. The client started humbly as a tea vender having his shop on a push cart where except the kerosene everything else was financed by the bank. When I went to the hotel he owned everything yet recognized me as a  newcomer and poured gratitude and made me owe the relationship.

As I grew in the bank I had witnessed more and more on ideal relationship of banker-customer. The cashier of a small branch received a cheque issued by the Principal of a school but without his signature. Both the school and principal being reputed the cashier rushed to the telephone, managed to catch the principal on phone after many attempts and confirmed about issue of a cheque by him and paid the cheque without signature!! The principal did visit the bank later to confirm the signature but a huge reputation was saved by the cashier walking the extra mile than follow the rulebook blindly.
The bank is now more than 100 years old, and the last two decades in the era of computers and net banking as also ATM. Mobile phones can also be used for banking but how well they would be used to protect reputation is a mute point. The banker commanded a status in the society to such an extent that he could fix reputations of customers by the style of treatment. A temporary overdraft over phone request, payments against clearing effects, or even a clean OD were reflection of the status of an account holder.

It is not the elite or the business class alone that benefited. Buffalo loan, crop loan or in general rural banking literally catered to the growth of people. While the first day experience of the hotel owner was a lesson, the story of growth of a tea stall owners or a Photo copy machine shop almost at every place the bank existed provided a sense of pride and fulfillment on the silent yet effective role of the bank to the growth of the society. The most gratifying incident was at Kanpur where the Regional Head himself went around the city in biting cold winter at midnight to identify borrowers  who were below poverty line and deserved a wollen blanket. The blanket distribution and identification of borrowers under priority sector lending were completed at the dead of night in the biting cold to ensure genuineness of the poorest of the borrowers.

Today is an era of address proof and ID proof. Almost four decades ago the bank granting loan to the tea venders gave them identity and an address to live in. Customers in the rural branches used to be upset with quick disposal of their cheques as their intention was to spend time chatting with the manager on his farms and products. Today chats are in the net and the ATM by the very name is both automatic and machine. Technology thus has speed without the soft touch of human relation. The bank today gives loans for people with proof of consistent income to enrich their wealth but the loan to an youngster for his first income and create wealth needs to be continued. While the priority is competition and earning of profit, the perenniel priority sector has only banks like Bank of Baroda to look up to. The "generation next" in the bank would do this with added zeal if they understand the growth process of the bank in the non technology era. With that hope I wish on this foundation day a very Happy Birth Day to the bank.
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