OF PAY DAY LOANS AND OTHER LOANS

In the seventies, I was a clerk in one of the nationalised banks. Payday was very interesting. All of us had accounts with the bank where the Salary would be credited and we would all make our beeline to the cash counter, with the pass book and a ‘withdrawal’ slip. I was in the Bombay Main Office.

On that day, there would be a couple of outsiders- Pathan moneylenders, who would be waiting with passbook in hand. They would give loans to ‘staff’ at rates between 2 to 3 percent per month, deducted in advance. Their ‘security’ was the pass book and the signed withdrawal slips. They were the original ‘pay day’ loan lenders.

In addition, there were a couple of ‘peons’ from Udipi, who were big time lenders in the bank. Again, they were competing with the Pathans and the edge they had was that they were ‘staff’.

So, it is amusing to read about some NBFC starting the ‘pay day’ loans.

I can tell you about a few other loans…

PSU Banks used to have two shifts- morning and evening. In some suburban branches, the cashier would ‘lend’ a few thousand rupees to known traders from Kalbadevi. This would be returned in the evening, before ‘cash balancing’. The daily interest would be as high as five rupees per hundred. The interest would be pocketed by the cashier/his boss etc.

It is interesting to see the old loans getting revived.