All on ‘account’ of cash in rural bank branch

SV Venugopalan

A job in a rural branch of a bank offered a variety of interesting experiences. It was a privilege for me to reside in a village amidst simple, earnest and affectionate people during the early 1980s. Joining straight after college, a couple of months before the completion of my post-graduation degree, I felt secure and comfortable. Some of the situations that I encountered were quite amusing and they taught me a lot about human nature.

I was the lone clerical staff member in that branch; the branch manager was the sole supervisory officer. The presence of both of us was necessary to run the branch. The manager used to send me, along with the subordinate staff, for remitting excess cash or receiving the required cash from a bigger branch after finishing the day’s work in the afternoon.

Once, when the cash box was being taken out of the branch, a local customer got suspicious and felt disturbed. He went on to question the manager as to how the hard-earned money deposited by the public was being ‘irresponsibly’ shifted elsewhere. The manager had to take pains to convince him that the public sector bank truly owed back the liability and would not default on payment to any customer.

On another occasion, an unscheduled payment of

Rs 25,000 was to be made to a customer around 11 am. Unfortunately, our opening cash balance was much below that, and more deposits were unlikely to be made in our branch that day. I suggested that the manager himself go to secure cash from the branch situated about 9 km away. He thought of a short cut. He called up a current account holder, a wealthy textile merchant, and asked him if he could spare Rs 25,000 for the bank’s urgent need. His idea was to make him deposit the amount in his account and the cash received thereby could be used to clear the payment pending at my counter.

The customer was kind enough to agree, and his son turned up within five minutes in front of me, not with the cash, but with a cheque signed by his father! I asked him why he had brought the cheque. Pat came the reply from the young son of the valued customer: ‘My father has told me that the bank can take the required amount from his account.’ The shocked manager thanked him with folded hands, and he left.

We realised that the innocent customer had misunderstood our communication. After having a hearty laugh, the manager hurriedly left along with the subordinate staff to get the cash from the nearby branch. And our requirement had now gone up due to the cheque that was staring us in the face.