This from my AOL homescreen
A bank is to launch a "premier" branch where only the wealthiest customers will be allowed face-to-face services.
HSBC, which advertises itself as the "world’s local bank", is operating the service at Canford Cliffs in Dorset, where properties sell for up to £8 million.
From June, to be eligible to use the advisers at the branch, customers must have £50,000 savings, or a £200,000 mortgage, or a £100,000 mortgage and £75,000 salary, or pay a £19.95 a month "premier" account fee.
So how do we "serve God wittily in the tangle of our minds", and respond to this nonsense. Of the qualifying criteria to be treated as a human being by HSBC, I could, at a push, manage the £19.95 premier account fee. That’s £239.40 per annum in order to qualify for an encounter with a human face, and exchange conversation about ‘filthy lucre’ with a human voice. This is the bank that advertises itself as the ‘world’s local bank’!!
Now supposing I needed a loan, was worried about my overdraft, was on a low income and needed advice on how to make the best use of my local ‘world’s local bank’? Or supposing I was a pensioner on a fixed income – for me, not as daft or far off an idea as it used to be, huh? How did this bank ever dream up such an offensive idea as a ‘premier’ branch that offers only to the wealthy what any bank used to offer as part of the privilege of handling your money?
As a balancing act of social justice, would HSBC be prepared in underprivileged areas to make available debt and budgetting specialists to help people manage more effectively the little they have? In the spirit of the rules outlined above for the wealthy:
To be eligible to use the advisers at these branches customers must have less than £1000 savings, be unable to afford the deposit for a mortgage, or require Benefits help with the rent, qualify for tax credits, or be on a fixed or low income.
Aye right, Jim.
Dream on, son!
Not a snowball’s chance!
Why the scepticism though? After all, as the Wise Sage says, ‘He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse…He who closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard.’ (Proverbs 28.27; 21.13). Does the Wise Sage mean us to text these texts to HSBC – and appeal to their long term self-interest???
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