The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian)

by Ravi Subramanian

  Anand and the Bandra branch had another reason to celebrate in the first week of December. That morning, as part of his daily routine, Anand was checking the exceptional activity report—a report that listed out all the large-value transactions that had taken place in the branch. The report helped the Branch Manager keep a daily check on which customers brought in large sums of money into their account that day, and also who had withdrawn how much from their account.

  Staring at him from the report was an inflow of USD 300,000 into the account of Asia Logistics. A credit of this size into a current account was big; more so, if the account was new. An excited Anand looked out of the cabin for his secretary. She was talking to Kalyan. ‘Find Zinaida,’ he yelled. Anand’s secretary looked at Kalyan, who was standing next to her, and whispered, ‘Ever wondered, sweety, how the chances of you getting summoned by your boss increase manifold if you are a hot-looking chick?’

  ‘I will consider a sex change operation soon, I guess,’ replied Kalyan, as he walked away.

  ‘Zinaida, did you see your account’s movements in today’s exceptional activity report?’ Anand queried the moment she sashayed into his room. She was wearing a short skirt and a tight top. It was not short enough to be called obscene, just enough to distract Anand. He struggled hard not to make it obvious to her that he was checking her out.

  ‘Not yet, sir.’

  ‘Here, take a look.’ Zinaida took the printed report from Anand and examined it. A big smile came upon her face. ‘Asad Ansari has brought in fifteen million rupees,’ she said, disbelievingly.

  ‘You should be happy! Call him and thank him for his business. He has been good to us.’

  ‘Yes sir. I’ll call him the moment I get back to my desk.’ As Zinaida walked out, Anand could not take his eyes off her impressive derrière.

  Back at her desk, she tried reaching Asad Ansari at the number she had. ‘The number you have dialled is not reachable. . .’ the pre-recorded message intoned. Not being able to get through, she sent him an SMS. ‘Tried calling. . .USD three hundred thousand credited to your account. Thank you for using us. Please do call when u get this message. Rgds Zinaida Gomes.’ She also forwarded the message to Anand, with the prefix: ‘SMS sent to Asad Ansari since he is not reachable.’

  That night Asad called. ‘Hope it’s not too late.’

  ‘No, no Mr Ansari. It’s perfectly fine. I was on my way home.’

  ‘So late?’

  ‘Yes sir. Had a customer meeting.’

  ‘Did you get the deal?’

  ‘Yes, I did, sir. Thanks to your wishes.’

  ‘Who wouldn’t like to deal with you, Zinaida? You are the sweetest RM I have ever dealt with.’

  Was Asad flirting with her? She was not too sure, though she knew she was giving him the benefit of doubt. She liked it, though. It gave her a feeling of power, a sense of control over others.

  ‘Mr Ansari, I was trying to reach you to thank you for operating your account. We have received the first remittance of USD three hundred thousand and it has been credited into your account. Do let me know if you want me to do something with it. . .’

  ‘It’s all yours, Zinaida. . .haha. . .’

  ‘No, no. . .That’s not what I meant. I wanted to check with you if you wanted me to transfer that to a fixed deposit or invest in some mutual funds.’

  ‘Of course I understood what you were saying. I was kidding. . . And no, Zinaida. I will need those funds over the next three weeks. So let that be in my checking account. Don’t transfer it to a fixed deposit. Don’t know why I thought you would have been told that. Anyway, let it be there.’

  ‘Oh, alright. No problem. Just call me or SMS me whenever you need anything and I will get it organized.’

  ‘Sure, sweetheart.’

  ‘Goodnight.’ Ansari sounded drunk. But Zinaida had learnt to tolerate such flirtations; in fact, she had learnt to use them to her advantage a long, long time ago.

  10

  GB2, Mumbai

  December 2011

  Raymond Saldanah was not new to banking. After joining GB2 eight years ago, he was shunted around various units—NRI, operations, credit, branch banking and almost every single department in retail banking. It was not a surprise, then, that when a job in the compliance team came up, the pot-bellied Raymond was the perfect choice. He knew how every unit worked and also knew the loopholes. The games bankers played to circumvent compliance norms were not new to him. Raymond’s looks were quite anti-compliance, soft and friendly. In his quest to look menacingly fit for a compliance role, Raymond even grew a moustache once he joined Juliana’s team.

  Despite his competence, Raymond got moved around so frequently for a reason. Raymond’s candid approach had got him into trouble more than once. Anyone would have learnt from adverse experience, but not Raymond. Consequently, he never got along with his supervisors in most of his previous roles. Outspoken that he was, he would never mince words and bosses never like being told that they might be wrong. But Raymond didn’t care and that always led to conflicts.

  GB2 was known to have a great compliance culture all over the world. Every single process, every single product launch, every single branch was subject to compliance scrutiny and that made compliance very powerful and one of the most hated teams within the bank.

  So when Raymond joined the ‘horror chambers’, as compliance was affectionately called, and took over as the Head of compliance for the bank’s retail business, even the few friends he had started avoiding him. Conversations would stall in his presence. People measured every bit of what they said. It was not that everyone looked at him with jaundiced eyes, or treated him coldly. There were a few who also tried to get close to him. But the latter happened only when people needed favours from him—when they wanted him to clear a long-standing proposal, or approve an iffy process.

  Raymond, however, had one trait which none of the others in the compliance team had. Raymond was pragmatic and had a business mindset. Often when approval requests would come to him, he would look at it with the business perspective in mind. If the impact of a particular change was significant, but the risks were limited in comparison, he would approve it. The ‘material impact’ yardstick was what was missing in the compliance team and Raymond and Malvika, his assistant, filled that gap to perfection.

  That day, Raymond was loitering on the fifth floor Head Office of GB2, when someone called out to him. He turned to see Tanuja waving at him.

  ‘Hi Tanuja.’

  ‘Raymond. . .my friend. How’s your compliance stint treating you?’

  ‘Pretty okay, so far. Nothing much to complain about.’

  ‘Like working with Juliana?’

  ‘Haha. . .she is cold.’

  ‘It’s okay. In any case, you didn’t get along with any of your bosses. If you don’t like Juliana, no one will mind.’

  ‘It’s not like that, Tanuja,’ Raymond was embarrassed.

  ‘So all set for the branch banking gala night?’

  ‘What gala night? When is it? I don’t even know about it!’

  ‘Arre. Didn’t Vikram tell you?’

  ‘When is it?’

  ‘It’s supposed to be today!’

  ‘No. I didn’t know.’

  ‘I saw your name on the invitee list. How come you have not been told?’ Then she started thinking. After a pause, she added, ‘I think I know. Vikram would have sent the invite to Juliana, for all of you. And now that Juliana is out of the country, the mail would have got stuck in her mail box.’

  ‘Possible. But you know na, I stay away from these parties.’

  ‘I think you should come. It will be good. I’ll tell Vikram to send you an invite separately, because I am sure your name was on the list,’ she reiterated. ‘These parties are fun as long as Vikram Bahl doesn’t start speaking. Once he starts, he never stops. . .’ laughed Tanuja, as she walked away from Raymond and he traced his steps back to his workstation. ‘See you there tonight.’ In the past, Raym
ond was a part of many of Vikram’s parties, mainly because they were known for lots of alcohol, good music and great women. A refreshing change from the monotony at work. ‘If he invites me, I will go,’ he said to himself. Back at his desk, he looked around for Malvika, who occupied the next workstation. She was not there. He then picked up some reports lying on his table and started going through them. It was his daily routine. Even though Malvika was there to assist him, he never relied on her. More than anything, he relied on his own instinct and it always helped him.

  That day after seeing the reports, he called Anand. They had a long discussion on certain suspicious cash withdrawals from accounts in the Bandra branch.

  ‘But Anand, no compliant business would need to withdraw over a crore in cash over three days. There is something fishy here. I am also worried because it’s a new account. Hope the customer is not using us as a conduit for bad transactions.’

  ‘I know, Raymond. But I’m not worried. He’s a good customer. Vikram too, knows him. In fact, three weeks ago, this customer mentioned to us upfront that he needed the money for some project work payments and that the money would be going out soon.’

  ‘Hmm. . .’

  ‘And Raymond, the day the money came in, the RM checked with the customer. We do our due diligence, you see, buddy.’

  ‘I see what you are saying, Anand. I don’t have any issue with that. Let’s monitor this account for three months. Keep it on the suspicious transaction-monitoring list. We will take a call after three months.’

  ‘I don’t think that is required, but if you insist, I’ll do it. But let me talk to the RM first.’

  ‘Who is the RM?’

  ‘Zinaida Gomes. Let me speak to her and get back to you. Will drop you a line by the end of the day.’

  ‘Sure. Thanks.’

  The next call Raymond made was to Harshita. The two of them shared a great rapport and went back a long way. At one point in time in her career, she had even reported to Raymond. Their closeness could be gauged by the fact that when Harshita’s sister had finished college, Raymond had added Malvika to his team.

  ‘Heard of Asia Logistics?’ Raymond asked her.

  ‘Who hasn’t? It is THE account, sourced by THE RM of the Bandra branch,’ came the sarcastic reply from Harshita. The stress on ‘the’ was not lost on Raymond.

  ‘Why, Harshita? What happened? You sound peeved!’

  Harshita was like a dam waiting to burst. The moment Raymond asked, she blurted out everything that had happened in the branch over the past few days. Harshita told him everything about the conflict and the fact that it was brought in by Chandrasekhar who was known to Vikram, which meant indirectly that the account had to be treated as a reference by Vikram.

  ‘Now I understand. It kind of strengthens my resolve to dig deeper into this,’ said Raymond.

  ‘No ya. Leave it. You’ll be hitting your head against the wall.’

  They bitched for a few more minutes on how aggressive youngsters, with a penchant for making a fast buck, were ruining the impressive façade of the compliance-oriented business philosophy GB2 was known for.

  ‘You hate her na?’ asked Raymond.

  ‘No I don’t. I just hate the way in which she uses her charm to get her work done. And I hate the way the middle-aged men in the branch and outside are falling for her charm.’

  ‘Let it not impact your confidence, Harshita. You are the best I have seen so far into my career.’ This was the second time Harshita had heard this, in less than twenty-four hours. When she heard it from Siddhartha, she felt he was biased. Now, when Raymond said this, it was an endorsement of what Siddhartha had said the night before and it felt good.

  ‘Yes, Raymond. Thanks for everything. How are things at home?’

  ‘The same. No change.’

  ‘Hmm. . .I can understand,’ and then Raymond heard a noise in the background and then a ‘thank you’, which was obviously directed at someone else.

  ‘You’re not in office?’

  ‘No, Raymond. Remember, tomorrow is Malvika’s birthday? I had promised her an iPad long back. Just came out to buy it. I can’t buy it in the evening because I have to go to the branch banking gala night.’

  ‘Oh, okay.’

  ‘You’re coming for it na?’

  ‘I don’t know, let’s see. Will chat later, and by the way, thanks for reminding me of Malvika’s birthday,’ and Raymond hung up.

  In the interim, after the conversation with Raymond, Anand called Zinaida to his cabin and briefed her about the entire conversation.

  ‘This is ridiculous, boss. There is nothing remotely suspicious about this transaction. Asad Ansari told us in advance about these cash withdrawals. He had some payments to make. I have visited his office and done our due diligence. What else does Raymond want us to do? He has lost it, boss.’

  ‘Hmm, but Zinaida, a cash withdrawal of over a crore is quite unnatural na? What kind of business would need so much of cash over just a couple of days?’

  ‘Boss, didn’t Chandrasekhar tell us Asia Logistics is also into the bullion business? Cash is required when you deal with the yellow metal. And sir, if we allow Raymond to put this account on the watch list, then the customer will get to know of it. It will become a big issue.’

  ‘How will he know? This list is never made public. It’s internal to the bank.’

  ‘Yes Anand, but our interrogation will go up significantly. Every time the customer deposits or withdraws money, he will be asked embarrassing questions about the source and utilization of funds. He will eventually get irritated and shift his account. He initiated the process of moving to us because he was not happy with the service levels at his previous bank.’

  ‘Hmm. . .I can understand.’

  ‘And Anand, we are topping league tables now. The average balances Asad Ansari has in his Asia Logistics account are partly responsible for that. If this account moves, we will drop down and it will be almost impossible to catch up.’

  ‘Okay, that’s a fair point. I will manage Raymond and see how this goes.’

  ‘Thanks, boss.’ As Zinaida left the room her lips turned up, morphing into a wicked smile. A small, albeit significant battle had been won. Asia Logistics had to be protected at any cost.

  Anand sent a mail to Raymond that evening, stating he didn’t quite agree with the view that Asia Logistics needed to be put on the suspicious transaction-monitoring list.

  When Raymond read that mail, he was quite upset. He saw it not as an affront to his authority as a compliance officer, but more as a lack of ownership, of the need to be compliant with the laws and ethical business practices at the branch level. ‘Why does business always take priority over compliance? Isn’t there a need to do clean business?’ he muttered, but there was not much he could do. Juliana, his boss, was away on a foreign trip and he had to wait for her to come and resolve this potential conflict. But could he wait that long? He was getting restless. At that very moment, his phone rang.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘What time will you be home?’

  ‘Why? And how does it matter?’

  ‘Can’t you answer any question in a straightforward manner? I thought my question was very simple. When are you going to come home?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What kind of an answer is that?’

  ‘Oh, now I get it. You want to go out with that asshole. That’s why you are checking.’

  ‘You’re a jerk,’ came the exasperated response from his wife.

  ‘Tell me. Tell me. Where are you meeting him? I will not stray in the vicinity.’

  ‘Shut up, Raymond. I wanted to know because I am going to be late and Sharmin has to be picked up from her tuition at 8.30 p.m. If you will be back by then, it’s fine. Else I’ll make some other arrangement.’

  ‘I will be back in time to pick up my daughter. You have fun.’ He hung up abruptly. The relationship with his wife of ten years had deteriorated rapidly from the time he found out that
she was more than close with her colleague at work. While he had no evidence of any kind of physical intimacy, a few SMSs he stumbled upon indicated to him it was more than a close friendship—a fact he could not digest. For Raymond, life at home was hurtling towards hell and that too at a furious pace. This was one of the reasons, in fact the key reason, he stayed back late at work almost every day.

  After the call Raymond was even more infuriated. Almost everything around him made him lose his cool. Anand’s mail was open on his laptop screen. An urge to reply to him took over. He looked at his watch. There was still some time to pick up his daughter. Adjusting his laptop, he started typing off a mail. . .to Nikhil, explaining why he thought the account of Asia Logistics should be formally notified for monitoring under the suspicious transaction-monitoring norm.

  After drafting the mail, which was particularly nasty, he sat back, read through it and pressed the send button. Before he shut shop for the day, he took one last look at his mails. There was a mail from Vikram, inviting him to the gala celebration. We invite you to ‘Play the Lead’, the invitation said. Raymond smiled when he saw the title. Vikram never realized that in his peer group, he was the butt of criticism and ridicule for coming up with crazy names, which had absolutely no relation to the event in question. Vikram loved sycophancy and often during his events, one could see the branch managers holding aloft banners and posters with Vikram’s pictures on them and screaming their guts out. He could well imagine what the scene would be like that evening. All branch managers and cluster heads, screaming ‘We play the lead!!’ ‘We play the lead!!’ and making a mockery of themselves. It would be good to attend it, especially when one wasn’t in the branch banking team, because one could then sit back and enjoy the show.

  But today, he couldn’t have gone even if he wanted to. He had to head back home. He disconnected his laptop, put it into his bag, locked his desk and left for home. Back to hell. To his wife, whom he no longer loved.

  Five minutes from home, his mobile beeped. It was a message from Harshita. ‘Not coming?’