banking

The networking organisation I'm in is trying to open a bank account. Not an easy thing to do. Has to be difficult, or we'd all switch regularly.

I'm the secretary, so I have had to sign everything. Today I had to give the bank more information (which they couldn't obtain by email, apparently) and my identification. I'm a regulated professional, so it's 100% unnecessary to ID me, but the form doesn't have a tick box on it for that.

The banks are so busy with their checklists that no-one is allowed to think about what they're doing, so things go wrong.

"£100m from your Cayman Islands account? Fine, just need a copy of your passport. Oh, you used to have a beard. Fine."

I came home to read in the news about another bank's online banking "going down" because some jobsworth forgot to renew registration of the website domain. Not on his/her checklist?

I'm dealing with banks more than is healthy at the moment, in the context of the power of attorney I have from my mother. The level of incompetence is frightening.

So, 2 hours away from my desk (to say nothing of the £9.40 train fare) just to spend 8.5 minutes in the bank in Embra.

The Blip is Haymarket station in the west end of Embra - currently being rebuilt. Looks promising. More than you could say for the tramworks at the front door.