September 20, 2007

by Satya  Adhar

ICICI Bank loan recovery agents harassed a 38 year old guy so much so that he had to commit suicide.

The problem started when the victim Prakash Sarvankar took a personal loan of Rs 50,000 in January 2007. Since he was out of job and had also contracted jaundice, he could not pay the installements and this gave the recovery agents a opportunity to harass him. These agents would visit his house, thereaten him, abuse him in front of his family and once even took away his CD player.

The police has arrested four agents and has said that it will take strict action. Meanwhile, the bank says "We are also conducting an inquiry and appropriate action would be taken. As a bank, we would never authorise any of our agencies to use coercive methods."

Now, these banks hire telemarketers and Direct Sales Agents and constantly bother people with their offers and requests for loans. The concerned officers don't even check properly the background of people before giving them loans as they know how to get the money back in case of problems. They have special people to recover loans and they are none other than "the recovery agents" whose job is to get the money back in whichever way possible.

Talking of services, ICICI bank has such a big list of complaints that you can find a number of online forums with thousands of complaints and no one pays heed to them. Banks play a huge role in the economic development of any country. Are such banks going to put us in the league of economically advanced nations? 

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