There is a good pitch for banking outsourcing here . Read it with open mind as it is written by consultants who are selling the services.

It would also be good to talk about the side effects of this outsourcing malarkey which in practice is merely a conduit for banks to reduce costs (read increase profits) but not increase efficiency.

Banks now have collecting agents to collect cheques from their deposit machines and process them. This has resulted in:

  • delays in cheque clearing (not many people actually keep track of this clearing time) and

  • a lack of common sense in processing cheques

    • Under the first category, there was a time when if you deposited a cheque at a branch where both the cheque giver and recipient hold accounts, it would clear the same day. But now, because of the 'postman' it takes longer.

    The branch sometimes doesn't let you deposit cheques over the counter (banking policy I suspect) so one has lost that tool to pay someone the same day unless, of course, one issue a cash cheque for which most banks collect RM2.

    Under the second category, if your name is Ahmad Tambi bin Kenneth and the person who wrote out the cheque simply wrote Ahmad Tambi, then the outsourced processing agent simply rejects the cheque.

    I find this diabolical. How on earth is every cheque writer going to know the full name of every one of his cheque recipients?

    Customers should monitor their banking accounts like hawks. I have a banking complaint currently outstanding and it is being pursued through the appropriate channels. While many customers gripe about ATM and Internet banking charges (now subject to Bank Negara guidelines), banks have been quietly getting away with things that are very costly to the customers.

    In fact, our banks are fast becoming known for their high charges. I believe that at some point in the future, we should not be surprised if the banks put automatic barriers a la toll at their entrances in order to collect 50 sen for the privilege of entering.