Institutional Racism – Still on Show?
- November 4th, 2011
- Posted in customer services . Ranting Nonsense
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Institutional Racism – Still on Show?
by M Asim AfzalI’ve had one of those weird weeks, lots of positives, like my daughter’s parents meeting and a good friend becoming a mother for the first time, but also experiencing the uglier side of the nation as well.
English football may me making the headlines due to a myriad of race abuse allegations, I note that all of the views expressed that we don’t have a race issue in English football, have one thing in common, they were all said by those who aren’t members of an ethnic minority.
Now you may ask, social commentary aside, what does this have to do with a business blog. Well quite a lot really. I visited two banks this week, Santander and the other The Bank of Scotland. Both branches were in the leafy suburb of Newton Mearns in Glasgow. Here goes the story…
My wife, decided to set-up two children saver accounts for the twins, as you do. HBOS was offering a great deal, so after I submitted the online application, she popped into branch with their proof of id and that was that. No big deal. Then… after 2 months, the standing orders started being returned after being processed without incident previously.
So like any consumer, off she toddled to the Bank of Scotland to ask why? She was summarily dismissed, saying its Santander’s fault. Not knowing any better, off she popped to Santander who confirm everything appears to be in order from their side. Undeterred as my wife is no wall flower, and off she goes banks to Bank of Scotland and speaks with a supervisor and gets brushed out the door in a Teflon shoulders action…
It was enough for my wife to actually believe she must have done something wrong. I was adamant, nothing was wrong with the way the account was set-up and the fault lay with the Bank of Scotland. So as I had a few hours on Thursday, I accompanied my good lady to the bank.
Being no wall flower myself, I was prepared to get shirty if someone tried the same tactics they had with my wife. Turns out we were seen by the same clerk as my wife. This time she took my papers and diligently tried to find the answer, which she did. HBOS had stopped these products so we had no option but to close the accounts. Now this is galling point, I simply gave over the same papers my wife had handed over the week previously. The only difference, I speak with a Scots Accent, my wife with an Asian accent.
Now although my wife was born in Pakistan, she successful passed her UK citizenship test earlier this year, which means her grasp of English, UK politics is probably stronger than the average Brit’s. Her only tell tale that she is an immigrant (her skin colour aside) is she still speaks with an Asian accent.
I write this blog with the understanding that it is not racism that is on the rise, but the tolerance of ethnic minorities to being racially abused has lowered. I have been subjected to racial abuse at all levels throughout my life, but have never raised the issue ( got close one time when dealing with a nasty franchise) but the actions of Bank of Scotland have really placed a sour taste in my mouth.
21st century… my big brown arse it is….
Lastly as we say at Templeton Green, in business as in life, we have choices, what will you choose today?
I can tell you that it wasn’t all in your mind. Bank of Scotland all but hits the panic button under the counter if you do not have the “proper” accent.
After I moved to the UK in 2003 I immediately went to my local branch of Bank of Scotland to set up a current account: a basic but vital tool in everyday living. I suppose the first sign that something was wrong came when the clerk had to phone corporate headquarters in Edinburgh to figure out how to set up my account. I was informed that because I had just arrived in the UK, had no prior credit history here, and could not – due to the Data Protection Act – bring my lifelong credit history into this country, the only account the Bank was willing to give me was the basic account they normally gave to 16 year olds as a starter account.
I was 25 at the time and had been independent and financially responsible since the age of 18. I was also a newlywed trying to get my life in my new country off to a steady start. But I didn’t feel I had leverage to negotiate, so I accepted the account.
I learned very quickly what the value of the teen cash account was: nil. It was a glorified savings account. At the time, my Scottish husband and I were trying to get a mortgage to buy a home. Nevermind mortgage. With the teen bank account I couldn’t even get a mobile phone contract, nevermind the vital steps to a family life.
Normally the bank upgrades a teenager’s cash account to a regular account after two years. Well, my two years came and went, and I visited my branch in person and asked them to upgrade me to a regular account. They declined. And not only did they “decline to inform me of their reasons”, The clerk told me I should be *grateful* to have the teenagers’ account, because they’d changed their rules. If I, as an immigrant, had applied that day, they would have given me a cash only savings account with no debit card.
So there I was, age 27, a full time professional in a managerial position, with a teenagers’ cash account. I couldn’t get a loan, a credit card, or even a phone contract with it. And because I couldn’t do anything with the account but shop at Tesco, my credit history was worse than bad: it was nonexistent. And Bank of Scotland wouldn’t budge.
In exasperation I visited my MP at his Saturday surgery and explained the situation: I had been in the country legally for two years, I was on track for citizenship (which I have since been granted), I was working, I was responsible, and I had a bank which was refusing to upgrade me from a teenagers’ courtesy account. My MP said he’d make a call.
Four days later (ha!) the paperwork arrived from BoS to set up my regular current account. All it needed was my signature and my basic, adult current account would be ready to go! Their excuse was that there had been “an error in the way my account had been set up in 2003″. I was supposed to accept that as the excuse for why I had been literally treated like a child for two years.
But I didn’t buy it then and I still don’t now. Would I have been talked down to, treated like a child, and denied a basic explanation for decisions if I had an accent from down the pub? Would I have been treated that way if I came in with a “Male Authority Figure” of the proper accent rather than going in on my own with my incorrect accent? I highly doubt it.
Eight years later and the tables have turned to the point where someone from the branch phoned me to invite me in for a coffee, biscuits, and a friendly chat about ways the Bank could help me invest my moolah in their financial products. I said no. I put my investments in another bank. Maybe they’ll phone me in two years to ask again. I’ll say no and will decline to inform them of my reasons.