[condor]

Scenario #1
A person wants a loan from a Bank.
As per process, the bank asks for personal details. The details, and the process followed by the bank are as per national SOP & defined requirements.
The person looks at the details to be provided, and is Offended.

Scenario #2
Person has provided his thumb impression to Google, Xiaomi, Samsung, OPPO, Vivo, etc etc.
Google has track of what the person has purchased, where he goes, when - and even pushes ads based on these activities.
Heck, the ads would even be based on browser activity or even based on what he has said when talking to someone in person (of course, phone is in ear-shot).


Summary:
#1 is invasion of privacy. How dare they ??
#2 is NOT invasion of privacy. There is no financial transaction involved between the parties.



* * *

Seriously, and IIRC this was shared long back on TBHP Itself - a person(member) had a minor incident/accident and the other person didnt keep up his word to close the matter. the first person just searched online for info on the second party, and had enough data including home and office details to politely followup and close the matter. This had happened in Bangalore.

* * *

Providing info to a bank is seen as offensive. But do people know that everything can be seen, heard and tracked. Esp the online stuff ? Whether it is some big-shot or small fry, it is all available out there.

* * *

How many car dealerships / insurance agencies would have sold personal details to marketing agencies ?

* * *


OP could delve deeper into the process, analyse the mandatory/optional data requested, may be filed a RTI to find reasons, etc. This would have been a more cerebral response.
Or could have just gone to another bank.

[Bsreecharan]

My Father has been a banker. All due respects. I have always felt that the concept of EMI is so skewed towards the lending institution. why should a consumer pay 80% or more of the annual EMI amount into Interest? Imagine a 10 Yr home loan and the % of EMI that gets taken during the first 6-7 years is crazy proportion. by the time a middle class / salaried class people gather themselves and get to a position to pre-close the loan, the principle outstanding is still huge and significant.

[Kiran Melkote]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

I haven't faced this for loans, but have faced it when my daughter was born. Me and wife belong to different religions (not love marriage!), but I'm an atheist, so didn't give my daughter any religion in column in birth registration at hospital. They told you have to fill either mine or wife's religion. I told them, please give it in writing and I shall meet them in court. They backed off.

As an aside, I used to write "None of your business" in really small writing under "Religion", moved on to "Invisible Pink Unicorn" and am now at "Jedi". This was on all forms - sarkari as well as others.

For my Son's birth, I put down "undecided". They did ask and the answer isn't wrong. (He's named Anakin btw)

Back to topic - Yes, some of the information requested is irrelevant to the loan process itself but look upon it as the cost of doing business. But always remember, stupid questions deserve similar answers - there is no wrong way to answer, so use your wit, as long as each answer can be justified as true

[anay3000]

We all provide our UID and PAN number during loan application process. Guess what. You dont need to fill in the personal details in a form for anyone to access it. There are paid APIs that fetch relevant information from UIDAI into the bank's BI software.
Currently, most BI softwares will not refuse loans straight away. Most will suggest additional documents as per bank's business logic to secure and justify loan disbursals, and may also suggest a higher minimum Rate of Interest to make the EMIs unrealistic for the borrower, so that the borrower goes to other bank, where same process is repeated. This is not related to your religion, caste, creed. It is business of areas. There are some locations which have a higher percentage of loans turning into NPAs, credit card fraud, etc. Demographics of locations, credit score swings of these locations, are instrumental in the BI logic, not your beliefs. The forms you see are just relics of a bygone era.

Source: I work on creating similar credit underwriting BI softwares.

[Sran]

Originally Posted by The Rationalist

Our country is running at least 5 decades behind in thought process and simplifying procedures. It's all due to the redundant educational system I feel.

I think you haven't met the German "educated" bureaucrats, the country that seems to be quite ahead in the eyes of many. Filing numerous paperwork is favourite past time there. Then also it seems you haven't had any dealings with American banks and it's postal institutions where money order is still in fashion and so are cheques. Then there is Belgium that takes the cake because no one knows how many governments are there and whom to approach. Iirc there are 5-6 government that rule Brussels.

We also aren't using fax(facsimile), like the world's biggest economies (USA, Germany, Japan) and do not print "In God We Trust" on our currency. We are very ahead in Transgender rights and rarely any other country gives selection of gender columns other than male and female. We started it in Oct,2014, a year ahead of USA (2015) where it still isn't federally enforced. e.g. While applying for passports in India you can just select "transgender" columns and be done with it, no need of doctor certificate. Whereas other countries require a doctor's certificate. We are leading in maternal rights and leaves given during maternity.

[Jonathan Arpith]

I'm a PSU banker working in branches and can attest to the fact that these are mandatory as few have already mentioned. The fact that some have mentioned they have not been asked these information is because most of don't like to ask these questions to customers and would just feed in the appropriate response in the loan processing software.

[banana]

Originally Posted by livetodrive

I had to share a snap wearing my company T Shirt, which I did and then they requested to send a selfie with my company logo from my office premise. Sorry, I did not oblige to that request.

Apart from all silly details, this is the part where my application differed. The banker even said, we just need passport sized photos, old ones will also do.

Your banker on the other hand appear to be more interested in evaluating your photography skills just kidding.

Originally Posted by Raghu M

I don't blame the banks, it's something that is needed with the increasing pressure on NPAs and bad loans. Once you default a payment, all banks share those details and that is when it will be hard for you to even open a bank account leave alone getting a loan. There is also a provision in the law now that gives banks the right to take money from your account if you have defaulted your previous payments. They serve you notice and your pan is on radar. Just in case you have some deposit in your account, they can take it right before you even lay your hands on it.

Something on the similar note. If we get loan from a bank where we don't have an account, they open a savings account and ask for cheque leaves (if this is a fair practice, has been discussed above already). When you default, they simply put these in processing. These cheque leaves have your own name written on them. So on paper, you are withdrawing money from your account in another bank to the account in the bank where you applied your loan. Then comes the last sentence of the above quoted post.

Originally Posted by novice_alto

I had to take a loan from a cooperative bank. They agreed to disburse a loan only after I deposited 30% of sanctioned amount as additional collateral, in addition to the flat itself.

On similar note, sometimes banks ask to visit branch for all silly things (also related to next post). Reading the sanction letter and seeing this situation from another perspective can translate to "we want you to visit our branch for something which we can do with an email, but we would like you to leave whatever you do (which results in your earning of so and so amount, as per the sanction letter) for a day, be unproductive and pay next EMI without having any bad feeling"

My personal experience. I dropped an email to the bank for closing a loan. Called the branch next day, the person who picked up said that "yes we have received your email ......". What were you doing after reading the email ? Planning to take a print out and frame it and hang it on the wall ?

Originally Posted by NiInJa

So she was ready to give NOC to us but she said it was being done on case to case basis.

This was back in 2013. Since then, Banks have become strict with approval and disbursal process. Using tech like AI is helping them find bad loans and this tech requires information, the more the better. I remember filling in religion and caste category for a loan application recently. Didn't ring any bells except knowing that it will be used for demographic purposes. I guess working in this tech field has made me dumb

I guess, the dumb techie will be able to give same reply to similar type of customer. That too without a branch visit. If it is possible, it is just possible.

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Is there a list of valid castes? As castes were based on occupation, can I make up a new caste of Software Engineer? Wouldn't this be more helpful for the bank's risk logic than someone who is a code monkey saying he is a Kuruba/goat herder or a barber? This data point makes no sense in this context.

Definitely going in my next application, whenever that happens.

Originally Posted by Bsreecharan

Imagine a 10 Yr home loan and the % of EMI that gets taken during the first 6-7 years is crazy proportion. by the time a middle class / salaried class people gather themselves and get to a position to pre-close the loan, the principle outstanding is still huge and significant.

And then you don't have a NIL part payment and/or NIL foreclosure charge in most of the loans.