Sad state of Banks in India

I get several calls in a days from various people of different companies peddling different products all in the guide of helping me wanting to make me lighter in the pocket. Many of them are from different banks. I seldom talk to them but when I get cold call from the banks I patronise, I sometimes talk. However, my experience has been pathetic seeing the attitude, lack of ethics, honestly and shallow knowledge in these guys. I wonder how many people they must be cheating and fooling leading them to invest in instruments which they dont understand and return from which are very uncertain. It prompted me to write the note below to one of the bank.

Dear Sir,

I have long dealing with ICICI and Im also a shareholder and hence is this note with the hope that it will be taken seriously and acted upon. I want Ms. ********** to see this note to understand the risk the bank is carrying for future. I got a call from someone who introduced himself as my privilege banker and wanted to meet me. He said it is not a sales call and he just wanted to meet and also mentioned that my FD is maturing so he will give me some investment advice. I agreed to meet hoping that someone professional will come.

I was visited by two ICICI personnel yesterday. 1. He told me that my FD will mature on 10th Oct and said it is good for me to invest in a ICICI balance fund since I will get dividents every month. He showed me a paper where every month it has paid dividend while consistently the price has gone up. I asked how is that possible given that market fluctuates and then he said it was a dummy. I saw dishonesty with intention to cheat if what is being shown is not realistic. 2. He didn't show me a neutral analysis on why I should opt for this particular fund 3. He showed me a paper where I should sign to participate in the fund. I told him that if I do then I will do through demat account and he said no, I have to the way he suggested since the branch will then benefit 4. He also said I will not be able to sell MF through Demat account 5. I said that if Im doing directly from the ICICI pru site then I will do direct. HE said I can’t do it direct. The accompanying lady said she has seen the charges for direct is more than regular. I asked her why it should be and she said she has seen such cases.

I can go on but that's not the point. I felt shocked that these is the quality of the personnel who are doling out investment ideas to customers with so much cocky confidence that he has come with a single fund recommendation and a prepared document where he wanted to sign in advance of even me deciding or even my FD maturing. I understood his confidence must be from the collective confidence of success from this modus operandi. He didn't have the good of the customer in mind and was kust chasing his target so than bank can profit from unsuspecting customers. I felt disgusted from this experience to say the least. I have been noticing with lot of worries on the kind of people who are working in your bank and interfacing with me and but given yesterdays experience, I felt compelled to share with you my utter disappointment with your bank. This is a general issue and not about individuals and hence my request will be for you not to find out who are the people Im talking about. I have previously also been visited by two personnel from your bank who asked to me sell my entire stock holding statement and buy the ICICI MFs they were recommending. Is it not unethical for you to look at my stock, MF holding and then pitch to derive commissions for yourselves, I wonder. I will also request to ensure that I get no calls from any of your organization peddling products with total disregard for my interests. I feel sad for so many of your unsuspecting customers must be fooled everyday to part with their life savings and fall prey to greed of your personnels. I dont think any organisation that doesnt have the well being and good of the customers at the heart of everything it does will pass the test of time and prosper. So please look into this and take steps in the right direction. You dont have to grow at rapid space while compromising on the quality of the people who represent you. Regards,