Footpath Banking
You may be stunned to read the caption, but it is true, read this article which is prepared on the basis of the subject in an news daily.
Do you need your cheque to be encashed without going to any bank, then come to SJP Road in Bangalore, you find agents in que to help you to get cash against your cheque but you should be ready to forgo atleast 1% of your cheque amount or some fixed commission which ever is higher, but what a lucky guy you are you will get cash for cheque without going to anybank, yes it is possible in Bangalore and may be in other places too.
According to a news daily it is just next to violation of RBI norms and guidelines, and these agents have some permanent shops at SJP Road and astonishingly the nearest Police Station is just 200 meter away and this activity is carried on just opposite to BBMP Headquarters and next to LIC main building.
They charge a meager Rs.80-100 per thousand encashed. The work for bearer of the cheque is very simple, they need to fill a form and this is nothing but an authorization for opening a bank account [but for public it is next to difficult task to open an account in any nationalized banks] and next thing is you have to provide some residential proof like driving licence or ID card.
It is learnt that such activities are being carried out on the connivance of some unscrupulous banks and they allow these agents to open an account just on the basis of this authorization form.
You may wonder the annual turnover approximately from this activity from all the agents it is around Rs.50 lakhs per day and roughly around Rs.15 crores per month and around Rs.180 crores in a year, which will sucked out.
According to learnt source such activities are being carried out by some people who want to evade tax and these agents help them in this unholy activity and many people who do not have much time to wait at bank will use the services of these agents to get their cheques encash.
It is heartening to read such activities as the whole banking system is subverted and which in turn leads to generation of unaccounted money that too at unhindered busy street.
You may find people sitting with a chair on the pavements at SJP Road with a bag full of cash in the morning and quite early in the morning currency notes will change the hands and they carry out this business till night sometimes, when the correspondent contacted a agent he disclosed that up to Rs.1 lakh they are ready to encash by deducting a minimum of commission of Rs.750 and he said they are ready to encash any amount and when correspondent quipped with the amount deducted as commission was little high then the agent shot back to say the activity is carried out with the help of banks and they ask for more money hence the agents will charge high commission.
A former bank managing director has opined that without the connivance of the banks these activities will not happen, there is a holy nexus between agents and banks, probably hundreds of bank accounts opened everyday to deposit these cheques. If government delays action against such activities then one fine day we will see the whole banking system will become insecure and any antisocial can take advantage of this type of easy money making business.
If an ordinary citizen wants to open an bank account he should provide lot of documents and has to wait for a long time to see his newly opened account, but these agents will open account even without a photograph of the concerned and it is a quite alarming and shocking activity.
It is high time for the main authorities like RBI to curb and put an end to such unholy activities which is next to broad light looting.
