The financial equivalent of a one-finger salute*

I was amused - and pleased - to read of the reaction of a New Zealand gentleman when his bank denied him a loan.

Defiant Mapua artist Roger Griffiths today made a stand against Westpac by withdrawing his $190,000 savings in $20 notes.

The bank provided a red-and-black carry bag to take away the cash after meticulously counting it in front of Mr Griffiths at its Nelson branch.

Mr Griffiths, a loyal Westpac customer for 25 years, decided to withdraw his money after the bank rejected his application for an $80,000 mortgage. "It's about time normal people took a stand."

He said the bank turned down his application because he did not have a regular income as an artist. However, he was a successful artist, exhibiting his paintings at the World of Wearable Art complex, in Christchurch and New York, he said.

He wanted to buy a $385,000 property in Mapua, had $200,000 in cash and was going to sell his $110,000 campervan.

That more than met the bank's criteria for a 20 per cent deposit, and the property which included a home and commercial premises would have returned $500 a week, he said.

He was disappointed when his loan application was rejected, but it was Westpac losing $111 million to Lane Walker Rudkin Industries that tipped his decision to withdraw his money.

"They can lose $110 million with LWR but turn down a normal customer who has never missed a loan payment," he said. "If they don't have the trust in me after 25 years, there's a problem for Westpac."

Having decided to withdraw his money, he then decided to make it hard for the bank by requesting payment in $20 bills.

He said the Nelson branch told him it did not have that amount and he would have to also go to other branches at Stoke, Richmond and Motueka. However, he insisted the bank have the money ready to collect at 9am today. He then took it to the Nelson Building Society, saying he would rather deal with NBS because it was part of the community.

His message to Westpac: "If you don't support the community, the community won't support you."

There's more at the link.

Well done, Mr. Griffiths - and equally well done for making the matter public! I wonder how much the publicity has cost the bank, over and above losing your account?

I'm sick of financial institutions that 'go by the book' (or, nowadays, by the computer program) without bothering to take the character, circumstances and record of the individual into account. There are a few people around here who live on Social Security and a meager savings account, to whom I'd lend money in a heartbeat. They're honest folk who'll repay me come hell or high water. There are others, better funded, whom I wouldn't touch with a ten-foot disinfected bargepole, because no matter how much money they may make, they're simply not trustworthy.

Peter

* For readers in Britain and her former colonies, that would be the reversed-V-for-Victory two-finger salute.