Banking. 11 January 2011

There are times when I shake my head in amazement at the inefficiency of this country. Yesterday was a case in point.
For various boring reasons, we operate mainly on a cash basis. I have an account in the States and use my ATM card to get out cash and pay whatever I need that way. This covers most things, groceries, the cleaner, etc etc. I do have a bank account here, but rarely transfer money by wire transfer, because the fees are really high and the exchange rate is lousy. It is just easier to take extra money out of the hole in the wall machine and go to my local bank and deposit it.
That was until a few weeks ago. Very conveniently, there was a branch of my Bank - Bank Itau – inside the factory where Steve had his office. At one time, there were probably over a thousand workers there, and someone had obviously thought it cost effective to have a bank on site rather than have people trying to take time out of their day to pay bills. I can fully understand why.
For starters there are the banking hours. The banks open at 10 am. Then they close for a lunch hour and then they finish for the day at 4 pm. Even the little branch on site would follow these hours. I remember about 20 years ago in the UK this was the sort of regime, although I can’t ever remember closing for lunch.
Well, just before Christmas, the factory closed and the offices relocated to a new building. Sadly with the demise of the factory, so too went the lovely quiet branch of Bank Itau. Now I am with Joe Public, trying to pay bills with the best and the rest of them.
For starters, Marcelo is never happy with the security, so we are trying several different locations to see which one he feels most comfortable with. There has to be parking, it can’t be near a favela (slum) and preferably not too many people.
Quite often I need to go to a branch of my US bank first and then head over to the Bank Itau. Two bank trips in one day is quite a stress for him but yesterday we went.
Before I could even get into the bank, there was a revolving door with a security guard. She gestured to me and muttered something in Portuguese. I had no idea what she was on about, but the guy behind me, who by this stage I was holding up, emptied his pockets of his keys and cell phone and deposited them in a tray that was conveniently cut into the revolving door. Okay, I got that bit.
Next there were about 8 or 9 people in front of me. I noticed that on the floor were taped yellow lines, a big arrow and “Entrada” – all on the floor. The lines were depicting a queuing system, albeit without the poles and ropes that you get at airports these days. People were dutifully following the lines, snaking around up and down. The yellow lines created 5 rows and I reckon that each row could hold about 8 – 10 people. In total, the lines could accommodate 40 – 50 people waiting in line. I looked in disbelief,
a. That people would wait in such a line and
b. That a bank would let such a queue build up.
Then I noticed a sign on the cashier’s window which basically translated as the following:
We expect on a “normal” day that your wait will not be more than 20 minutes long. On busy days, we expect your wait to be no more than 30 minutes long. There was then a definition of a busy day. The end of the week, the end of the month, the 1st to the 10th of the month. Days either side of a public holiday, days on which the maids are paid and days on which workers are paid. Thinking about it, that probably covers most of the month. I stood in line, and then stood somemore.
Then I noticed something else that is interesting. The Brazilians are very keen on helping the elderly, the disabled, pregnant ladies, nursing mothers and people helping any of the above or carrying a small child. There is always a window for such a group of people and they are always given priority. I’m sure if I looked hard enough I would find a label quoting the applicable law – Brazilians love such things.
The set up in this particular branch, was that the “priority” window was at one side, and alongside the wall in front of it were several chairs, I guess for the “Priorities” to be able to take the weight off their feet whilst they waited in line. There were only two cashiers on duty so as the 8 people in front of me waited, 4 priorities came in and went to their window. That left one person to handle everyone else. No wonder you can expect to wait 20 – 30 minutes.
And here is the other thing. Because it is such a painful and inefficient process, everyone seems to have hoarded up their bills to pay which slows down the process even more. One guy had so many screwed up pieces of paper that the casher made him go to the other side of the bank and photocopy everything so that she could process nice crisp pieces of paper. But of course it was far too much to expect the cashier to deal with another customer whilst we were waiting. Oh no – even the US Postal Service isn’t that inefficient.
So, my next task is to master the Internet banking. I suspect that more frustration lies ahead. Or maybe I ought to speak to the President of my husband’s company and plead a case for a new branch inside the office. After all it is his bills that are not being paid.