I do not want to say with this title that from the moment we enter a bank branch the staff there try to deceive us. I am of the opinion that in many of the numerous scandals that have occurred recently in everything related to banks, the staff of the offices have been more victim than executioner. But this does not mean that if at any time we are harmed, at no time will the bank recognize its errors and try to blame us for all the possible consequences. I am going to explain a case of a person very close to me. A few years ago, this person, faced with the need to make a purchase of goods, went to the office where he had his savings, to tell him that he was going to need them. It seems that the office manager did not like the idea very much, because he told him: “don't sell them! I'll give you a loan and we guarantee it with the funds you have”. My friend told him that he needed a little more money than what he had in the bank, to which the director of the branch replied that he would give him the same loan amount as the funds he had. That these funds would be safely invested, so that the interest rate to be paid would be offset by the interest rate paid by the bank, and the difference in rates would be the cost of the operation.
Thus raised the idea did not seem bad. The loan operation was signed and the funds that were in the bank were pledged, in the products that the bank considered convenient. The problem is that this bank put money into what his bank called a conservative portfolio, and that conservative portfolio was affected by the LEHMAN BROTHERS case. The conclusion is that when the loan is paid, and the money is requested to be recovered, there is a loss, of such caliber, as if the interest rate that has been paid to the bank was 25% in two years.
My friend told him "what have you done? This is not what we talked about." Silence was the bank's response. Four letters of complaint were sent to the Bank's claims service, which only answered the last one, to say that the claim period had expired. Lawsuit, where the bank's defense consisted of a string of lies that would make one blush if one had a minimum of dignity. And finally, a judge, who does not find out the substance of the matter, who mixes concepts, and makes it so that my friend does not get his money back. I do not intend to bore you with data, but there is an obvious issue, as all financial institutions usually recognize in their action protocols. In a loan with a security or money guarantee, the amount of the loan is determined by the quality of the guarantee, so that only the 100% of the loan is given, when the guarantee cannot fluctuate downwards. That very normal and common sense approach is what made my friend sign the operation. He trusted in the correct diligence of a banking professional, who did not have it.
Going back to the beginning, it is not that the bank intends to deceive you, but it is totally true that the bank is no one's friend. And if at some point he is making amends, very reluctantly, it is because of the loss of image that it causes him, not because of a feeling of justice and responsibility.
