The Incredible Banker (16 page)

'Oh, sure. Who should I say has come for him?'

'Deepak and Gautam from Greater Boston Global Bank.'

"Thanks, could you please take a seat. I will inform him,' she said and left to inform Rajib.

Within five minutes, Rajib was at the reception. He ushered them into a conference room right next to the reception. A few pleasantries later they got down to the crux of the meeting.

'Sir, Swati mentioned that you were interested in a corporate deal for credit cards for your employees,' Gautam asked Rajib.

'Oh, yes. See, we are a large software export firm. We have over 1,200 people working on our rolls. We hire the best of talent and pay them well to stay with us. A number of our employees spend money on office work, hotel, travel, etc. We don't want them to use their own funds. We would rather help them with credit cards from a bank like yours and make them spend on those cards. Once done, they can then claim it from us through the regular expense reimbursement process. Is something like this doable?'

'Mr Sen,' Gautam began only to be cut short by a fidgety Deepak. 'It's possible, Mr Sen.' He butted in. 'It's definitely workable. How would you want us to do this? Would you want these cards to be corporate cards, in which case the liability on the card use will be on Symbiotic Technologies, or would you want your employees to be issued individual credit cards where we will appraise the credit-worthiness of each employee and then issue cards? If it is the former, we will appraise your company and then give limits to all your employees. The call will be yours. You can choose the type of card and credit limit for your employees as long as it falls within the overall cap we set for your company. In the latter case we will collect individual documentation from all your employees and then appraise them individually. We will also run a check on the credit bureau for every employee of yours. There might be some rejections, too. What is it that you are looking for ?' Deepak said with his typical multinational arrogance.

'I would rather have them take a credit card on their own names and not a corporate one. Would you have an extensive documentation for this? If it is too difficult to get one, I would rather let it be. I don't want too much headache, or for that matter make it too complex for my staff.'

Rajib had delivered a subtle threat – either do it in a comfortable and convenient manner or lose the deal. This sudden threat worried Deepak. The prospect of losing a deal of 1,200 cards loomed large. It softened him gready.

'Mr Sen, please do not worry. We will work out the best deal for you. In fact I will come back to you with a proposal which will make it very attractive for you and your employees. Sir, we today have one of the best products in the market. Good travel offers, excellent reward points on card usage, twenty-four hour helpline, access to airport lounges, etc., are just a few of the benefits that we offer on our cards. We will give you the best product at best rates, sir.' Deepak's voice betrayed his desperation.

'Good sales pitch, Mr Deepak Sarup. Almost everyone offers these facilities now. What I want from you is an easy and painless processing for my staff. Also, I can't have your people roaming around my office for the next thirty days, collecting documents and application forms from my staff. So if you have an easy solution, come back to me by tomorrow.' Rajib got up. "Thank you for coming, gentlemen.' Deepak and Gautam, too, had to get up. Their host had pulled the curtain on the meeting.

On the way out Deepak looked at the office one more time. Sexy office! Wonderful decor, he thought. He could see about thirty people furiously working on their computers as if their lives depended on how soon they finished what they were doing.

'And, Mr Sarup,' Rajib's call made Deepak stop and turn back.

'One more thing...Citibank has already made me an excellent offer. They will pick up all documents from me and deliver the cards here in office. See what you can do better than them. I have almost closed the deal with Citibank. Swati called me yesterday morning and I felt that she was quite convincing. That's why I decided to speak to you. Think about it and get back to me quickly. I do not have much time.'

Sure, sir,' nodded Deepak. 'Can you please tell me a little more about the Citibank offer? What are they doing for you?'

'They will collect all employee data from me. I will collect the forms from my employees and hand over the documents to Citibank. Symbiotic Technologies will confirm the employee residence and office address that we have in our records. On that basis Citibank will issue the card to the employees. For employees who have been with us for less than six months, Citibank will do their regular verifications and issue a card. But for employees who have been with us for more than six months there will be no verifications.'

"That sounds interesting. However, I think we will be able to better that,' said Deepak, even as he turned and headed towards the main door.

As soon as they stepped out of the office, Gautam looked at Deepak and asked, 'What is your view, sir?'

'Arre, this is a brilliant deal. Sure shot hai yeh toh. We must not let this go out of our hands. Let's screw Citibank this time around. Let's talk to Bhalla and the credit department when we get back.'

But he knew it was not going to be easy. Citibank was known to be a real pain in the back when it came to letting go of a deal. They would chase it as if their life depended on it. Deepak had crossed paths with them many a time in the past. Even in his previous roles in branch banking and wealth management he had seen that they were very aggressive and undercut for every big deal. In lending they were known to approve loans that GB2 would never even dream of approving. They would lend to customers whose profiles were suspect and whom every other bank would hesitate in giving out cash. Deepak knew that Symbiotic was not going to be an easy deal. But he needed it. And needed it very badly at that. 'Chariots of Fire' depended on it. Didn't it?

Back in office, he called the referee. 'Hey, referee, how are you, my friend?'

'I am good...waiting in the lobby of Global Infocom for an interview. I have been sitting here for the last forty minutes, waiting. I seriously wonder why these guys take so much time in meeting with candidates!'

'Best of luck, my friend. Achcha listen, I wanted to tell you something. We met with Symbiotic today. Met that Rajib Sen.'

'Oh, you did? Good, good. It's a nice company. I was very disappointed when they didn't hire me.'

'How well do you know their background? They are asking for the moon. I was wondering if it would be worth putting up a fight to get this approved.'

'Oh, I am sure it is! And Citibank would not be chasing this deal for nothing. They are normally smart in these things,' the referee reminded Deepak.

'You mean we are not? Thank you for the compliment, my friend.'

'Haha...that's not what I meant. You know what I meant, you idiot.'

'How do I get to know more about their background?' As soon as Deepak asked the question, he heard some commotion in the background. Something was going on at the referee's end.

'Listen, Deepak. I have got to go. They have called me inside. Why don't you Google on the company? You will find some details. I am sure they have a website too.'

'Oh, yes. Best of luck.' Deepak hung up wondering how stupid it was of him to not have thought that earlier.

He quickly logged into his laptop and googled on Symbiotic Technologies. It showed up a number of links. Many of them were just news articles and press releases. He clicked on the link which was the home page of Symbiotic Technologies. It was a brilliant, hi-tech website. The jazz blinded him. He was very impressed – completely sold on the company. The history part talked about the company's twenty-year legacy. The list of clients seemed impressive. The geographical spread was large. They had operations all over the world. He had to do this deal – there was no way they were going to lose this to Citibank.

Later that evening when he met Savitha and they were driving back together, Savitha brought up the topic.

'How did Symbiotic go?'

'Arre, yes. I wanted to tell you about it. There was too much chaos today...just slipped my mind,' Deepak replied to her.

'Growing old, baby?' she asked with a naughty smile playing on her face.

'Shut up now. I am sure you don't need evidence to prove that your baby is not growing old?'

'Haha...kidding, love.' She quickly made amends.

'Hmm...I know. Symbiotic was chaotic. The guy wants the earth and the moon. He wants us to issue cards to his employees on the basis of his confirmation. He will give us their application forms and supporting documents along with income details. He wants us to issue a card to them on that basis alone.'

'How many cards?'

'He claims over 1,200 cards but my guess is around 600-800 cards.'

'Which is big.'

'Well, it is,' Deepak agreed.

'Will he give us the KYC documents?' Know Your Customer documents were collected from customers for all new relationships by every bank. It was a regulatory requirement and was prescribed by the RBI.

'You mean address and ID proof?'

'Hmm...,' Savitha nodded.

'We can ask him. We can tell him to give us the application forms, a confirmation from the company on their address in the company records, salary details and KYC. He would ideally have all of these with himself and wouldn't need to harass the employees.'

'Sounds good.'

'You think this will fly internally?' Deepak asked.

'You mean within credit?' asked Savitha.

'Yeah.'

'Let's try. The only hitch for you here is the verification which is under my control. And if we strongly believe in this deal, the same can be waived.' The unit which Savitha was handling managed the entire verification process. GB2 would send agents to the customer's residence and office usually to confirm if the applicant's office address and residence were authentic. These also served as a verification of the applicant's living standards and hence were a critical input into the lending approval process. However, the vendors doing the same were controlled by Savitha's team.

'How should we position it to Bhisham?'

'Deepak, Bhisham will ask his team. If we are waiving verifications for the employees, he will ask me. I will strongly recommend, given the employee profile and the company background. He should agree.'

Deepak smiled. 'It helps to know people in credit, doesn't it?'

The plan was made. Deepak would put the proposal up to Bhisham, who in turn was expected to refer it to Savitha. It happened exactly as they had planned. Deepak gave a glossy proposal to Bhisham, which was liberally littered with literature lifted directly from the company's website.

Bhisham glossed over the proposal. Seeing the link in the proposal, he clicked on it and checked the website. It was impressive. 'Finally we seem to have got our act right in the credit cards business,' he said to himself. As expected he forwarded the proposal to Savitha with a request to get back to him by the end of the day.

Savitha saw the mail from Bhisham and smiled to herself. Wasn't she too smart? She had predicted it just the way it was unfolding.

She didn't need to spend time doing any research. In fact even before Bhisham sent it to her, she had drafted a response for him. All she did was to retrieve the mail from her drafts folder and press 'send' on her mailbox. She also marked a bcc on the mail to Deepak. If there was a time lag of four hours between Bhisham's mail to her and her response, it was only to make sure that Bhisham got the impression that all the required diligence was done and nothing was short-circuited.

Dear Bhisham,

This is with reference to the proposal received from the cards team on issuing credit cards to employees of Symbiotic Technologies in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

I would like to confirm that I am comfortable with what is being recommended subject to the following:

a) These offices have to be visited by senior members of my team and visit report to be filed.

b) KYC documents should be provided. Exceptions to this have to be approved by either you or me.

c) Credit Bureau check should be done on applicants prior to issuing any credit card. If any applicant does not have any record on the bureau which indicates that he has not taken any loan/credit card from any other lender, we will do a complete set of verification on him.

d) Any employee with less than six months vintage in the company will not be issued cards under this program.

e) These cards should be tracked on a monthly basis and any adverse performance needs to be highlighted immediately.

Subject to these, I am fine with what has been recommended.

Regards,

Savitha

On the basis of this mail, Bhisham responded to Deepak with a confirmation of the proposal, subject to the conditions laid out by Savitha. Deepak was only too pleased because the mail sent to Bhisham was in fact drafted jointly by Deepak and Savitha. Only Bhisham didn't know about it.

The same evening Deepak sought a meeting with Rajib Sen. And the same day the deal was clinched. Symbiotic Technologies tied up with GB2 for issue of credit cards to over 1,200 of its employees. Deepak agreed that Symbiotic would hand over all the application forms, KYC documents and salary details to GB2 in consolidated lots, instead of GB2 collecting them from individual customers. In return GB2 would process them within three working days and deliver the cards in bulk to the office of Symbiotic Technologies, to a designated individual in the Human Resources team. The HR team would then hand it over to the employees and get an acknowledgement from the customer to GB2 within a week, failing which the cards would be cancelled.