These banks charge up to 60 per cent interest per annum and levy various hidden and unexplained charges. They justify these hefty charges citing the unrecoverable loans. As per their own admissions more than 70 per cent Indian credit card holders never pay their debts to the banks. So, they target remaining unfortunate customers, fallen somehow under debt trap to squeeze and extract as much as they could by hook or by crook, who are in significant numbers. If anyone is unable to conform to a bank’s deadline, s/he is subjected to brutal treatment. This is nothing sort of ’Talibanisation of Indian private banks’.

American and European financial meltdown could have been averted if they had outsourced all their banking services from India. Like their Western counterpart, Indian private banks also have thousands of collection executives working in shifts. However, these executives modulate their voice as the local miscreants speak. They are well-trained to apprehend customers, but unlike the West, Indian private and MNC banks like HSBC, ICICI, HDFC, hire recovery agents who are criminals and known thugs. Had the Western countries allowed these thugs to rob, assault and kidnap customers to recover loans, they would have succumbed to the pressure and paid by any means or would have committed suicide, but they chose financial meltdown over barbaric banking, which shows that rules laid down by respective governments actually work in these countries.

In India, anybody with a bagful of money can do anything and get away with ease. They just don’t bother about ethics, law and civility. Journalists, lawyers, police personnel and politicians are least likely to get credit cards of any private banks issued in their names. There has been leniency in recent years and the court even asked these banks to clarify the reasons for denying these services to anyone. Thus, this is not anymore a prerogative of a bank to take any whimsical and discriminatory decision.

The primary reason for keeping persons belonging to these professions out is that the bank would not be able to unleash its brute force against them as they do with thousands of hapless customers. The way these banks conduct their business is predatory and cruel. Banks are fully aware about the means adopted by their recovery agency, yet they would feign ignorance and innocence blaming the agency for these unlawful activities. There is easy money to be made by thugs and goons under the protective legal umbrella provided by the bank.

Now, dreaded criminals are also roaming around posing as recovery agents. They can barge into anyone’s house, beat the person and loot whatever they can lay their hands on. Due to certain social stigma attached with non-payment of any form of credit or loan, victims remain quiet and submit themselves before the brutality without uttering a word.

The dreaded bikers gang, which had killed many innocent persons was residing in an outskirt Delhi village posing as recovery agents. There are certain Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines regarding credit recovery, but banks care least about these. They keep their papers as per the guidelines and outsource these services to some agency. This is akin to giving ’supari’ (bribe) to some underworld don to eliminate somebody. There has been so much hue and cry over this barbaric banking for many years, but these bankers who are seen lecturing government about all and sundry subjects, are not bothered a bit about these shameful practices adopted by them.