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Banks’ policies say their employees must not accept any gift or hospitality. Government’s rules say insurance firms must not offer incentives to bank employees. But insurance firm employees openly advertise these rewards in bank employees’ WhatsApp groups.
Bank executives and senior managers can win iPhones, MacBooks, Android phones, smartwatches etc. for meeting insurance sales targets. Branch-level employees can win a host of items such as kitchenware, suitcase and electronic gadgets.
Then there’s hard cash. We received a call recording of an insurance company’s employees wherein a manager can be heard explaining to his juniors that they must pool in money to pay a bank executive, or else there’d be no insurance sales.
Insurance firms also take bank employees on fun trips to places such as Goa, Shimla, Gulmarg, Dubai, Thailand and Singapore. Stay in luxury hotels, celebrity meet-ups, fun activities, DJ nights follow. These trips are called training programmes though.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has penalised insurance firms for organising these ‘training’ trips, but this action has failed to be a deterrent. The trips, and unethical selling of insurance, continue all the same.
Bank employees’ unions have been complaining against this culture, wherein insurance firms bribe bank executives, who then put pressure on juniors to sell insurance anyhow, with the pressure compelling staff to sell through unethical means.
Unions’ letters to bank managements claim seniors bully staff with orders/threats such as: commit fraud if the target is not being achieved; either cut your own throat or some customer’s; if any staff opposes anything, open their file; I’ll throw you into a remote village.
Bank employees say they detest having to follow these orders but have to, or else they could face seniors’ wrath, i.e. abuse, suspension, or even transfer. Such is the pressure that at times, branch employees end up buying insurance for their own family to meet the target.
Poor farmers, senior citizens and homemakers fall victim to insurance frauds the most and lose heavy amounts. Often, customers seeking to get a fixed deposit are duped into taking a costly insurance policy.
Many branches deduct money for insurance from customers’ accounts without consent. This leads to bounced EMIs and damaged credit scores, which makes securing loans more difficult and costlier for them.
This is a longstanding problem. The insurance regulator has introduced a preventive measure but employees of insurance firms have found a workaround. Bank employees bemoan being forced to rob customers, and ask if there’s any end to this.
बीमा कम्पनियाँ अपना व्यापार बढ़ाने के लिए किस प्रकार बैंक कर्मियों को रिश्वत से खुले-आम रिझाती हैं, इस विषय पर प्रकाश डालने वाले इस लेख को आप हिंदी में भी पढ़ सकते हैं।
हिंदी में पढ़ने के लिए यहाँ क्लिक करें।
This story wouldn't have been possible if not for the bank employees who came forth and shared crucial evidence. Big thanks to all of you for your trust and for taking a stand.
Also, this story won’t have been possible if not for my editors @anoophilip, @furquansid and @nit_set, whose critical inputs turned a mere idea into an investigative story. This is why a collective is needed! Super grateful to @reporters_co for giving this story a home.
Major thanks to Centre for Financial Accountability @cfa_ind for acknowledging the gravity of the issue and supporting this story under the coveted Smitu Kothari Fellowship.
