The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (11 page)

‘Now look at Zinaida. She is so friendly to the entire branch. Gets her work done so nicely. Always willing to learn.’

‘Got it. Everyone says she is close to Vikram and that’s why she gets this preferential treatment.’

‘See, again. You’re not even listening. It’s not about Zinaida. It’s about you. And for the record, I don’t freaking care if anyone’s dad plays golf with the president. All I care for is numbers, team spirit and having fun in the branch as long as we are here.’ Harshita didn’t like what she heard. Even though she was standing in front of Anand, she turned her face to the side. She didn’t want him to see the little teardrop that had escaped the corner of her eye and was rolling down her cheek.

‘In fact, Harshita, talking about today’s huddle. Isn’t it true that you could have opened the account for Mr Ansari? I asked Bhavin to take you on the call when he met Chandrasekhar for the first time. You were too busy to follow up after that.’

‘No. . .that’s not true. I went with Bhavin when he met Chandrasekhar the first time. I didn’t get any comfort from that meeting. Maybe it was my gut, but I felt he was not a clean guy. And I asked Bhavin to drop the case. After that, it was only today I heard that the account he had referred was being opened and the loan application has gone for processing.’

‘Do you know where the lead came from?’

‘Yes. He told me it came from Vikram.’

‘If it comes from the Head of Retail Banking, aren’t you supposed to follow it up for closure? Am I an idiot, sitting here and chasing these transactions? Sometimes, Harshita, things have to be done because you are told to. You ignored Vikram’s lead. That’s what I meant when I said that you are taking your own calls. If I were you, I would have at least discussed it with the branch manager. You chose not to.’

‘I am sorry, Anand. I thought Bhavin would have discussed with you.’

‘Yes, he did. But I expected you to, given you are the senior of the two. Anyway, I think you have understood what I wanted to say. You still are one of the best we have. An integral part of my team. Fix these minor glitches and we are ready to roll.’

‘Yes Anand.’ Harshita was devastated by this conversation, but somehow controlled herself. The lone teardrop that had escaped her eyes dried out quickly. Anand stepped out and headed to his car. Harshita sat down in the conference room for a long time, staring blankly at the glass partition in front of her. Occasionally a colleague would pass by and wave a goodbye to her. How many of them went by and who they were, she had no idea. Finally, it was the security guard coming at ten p.m. to switch off the lights, seeing her and walking into the conference room that shook Harshita out of the trance.

Back home that night, she sobbed uncontrollably till she got tired and rolled over to sleep. Life was not the same in GB2 anymore. She hated Zinaida now. A younger and sexier RM, who had woven her charms around everyone in the branch, had upstaged her. She had to do something to change it. If anything, it made her more determined to win. The next day, while getting ready for work, she stared long and hard at the mirror. A few dark circles had cropped up, her face didn’t look as fresh as it used to. Age was taking its toll, but she still looked good—thanks to her rigorous fitness regime. Her hair was speckled with grey, maybe because family and home didn’t leave her too much time to pamper herself and work on her appearance. ‘If I need to compete with younger girls, I need to look like one of them. I am going to streak my hair this evening,’ she said at the breakfast table. Siddhartha, her husband, smiled when he heard that.

‘You know, Harshita, if you want to do so, go ahead. But don’t do it because you feel it will give you an edge at work. If people there admire you for your streaked hair and not for your work, then it’s probably time to move on. And, for the record, you look as charming and attractive as you looked when I married you seven years ago.’ He walked up to her and hugged her tightly. Harshita knew he was right. She dropped the plan.

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, Raymond 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.