Monday 08 November 1999 London-UK (habib998) From: Parveez Syed Shanti Communications, Global Media Monitoring Unit One Stuart Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8RA1 UK Telephone: London-UK 0044-(0)7831-196693 E-Mail INTERNET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 1999 (c) Shanti Communications news agency. All rights reserved. The following feature may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part. Copying, storing, transfer, redistribution, retransmission, publication and exploitation of this information is hereby expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of Shanti Communications UK. Section 326 of the USA-FCC Communications Act; Title 17 USC Section 107; Article 19 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the First Amendment US rights apply to all material, contents and ideas published and broadcaster by Shanti Communications and Shanti RTV news agency. Banksters rob Habib bank (editorial: habib998) by Parveez Syed (c) Shanti Communications news agency London, England (SC/SRTV) - Monday 08 November 1999 - One of the largest Pakistani banking group is being robbed by a new group of "greedy banksters" who are now set to fire more loyal staff; close its most profitable branches and sell assets to preserve their own gravy train. "This criminal mismanagement would leave 75 per cent Habib bank's British-Asian customers high and dry, and without viable community-banking service," a probing banking source told Shanti Communications news agency. "A new team of 44 banksters at Habib bank, for example, pay themselves more than 167,000 pounds every month, doing work which can be done by less then 20 people for 80,000 pounds a month," the source explained. "As a result of the banksters' incompetence and mismanagement, one branch alone lost four million pounds between March 1998 and September 1999," the source confirmed. "This particular branch won't be closing. It is where the banksters are based. Some people are more equal than others. The self-preserving banksters performed poorly in return for their fat pay cheques which they bank at rival banks. They failed to secure profitable business. They drove away Habib bank's mainstream customers including a large number of loyal depositors, reducing the turnover by 25 per cent. The banksters' annual office expenditure has increased by five times from 600,000 pounds to three million pounds," the source explained. Back in May 1998 Habib bank "fired 53 loyal employees and replaced them with a new team of 44 greedy; incompetent banksters who in turn hired their own over-paid unproductive cronies; friends; chums fans and charya-chumchas (spoons) who are now set to close most profitable branches. "We wonder who they are working for or serving? They have driven away our hard earned customers," the source said. "The banksters paid 250,000 pounds to a recruitment agency which has 'friendly' ties with the chief non-Pakistani bankster. Then another 'friendly' company was paid 500,000 for preparing a lousy business plan, advising Habib bank to close most profitable branches," the source confirmed. "A leased property, which is due to be demolished, was refurbished allegedly costing Habib bank 500,000 sterling pounds. The lease on the property is set to expire in 2001. The cheap refurb resulted in the bank being robbed twice, exposing cashiers to violent criminals. Another branch, which was also being refurbished, was robbed. The architect was paid 400,000 pounds for his efforts. A friendly legal advisor was paid 500,000 a year to recover 4,000 pounds, and he is still promising to recover debts abroad in return for a 33 per cent cut. One bank chief wasted 10,000 pounds on world cup cricket tickets for the friendly chumchas (spoons)," the source told Shanti RTV news agency. Habib bank's head office in Pakistan was recently forced to inject seven million pounds to "preserve the banksters' gravy train and antics. In recent years a rival Pakistani bank in the UK also hired many local banksters, who closed eight branches to preserve their gravy train," the source confirmed. Sources close to Pakistan's new leader Pervez Musharraf are said to be monitoring the banksters' ploys and performances. "The banksters' heads are set to roll as political appointees and fans of former premiers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, and Zardaris are under microscope at home and abroad," the source concluded. "Earlier this year the banksters tried to impose and sustain service management action plans without any extra resources. They tried to force employees to deliver unrealistic results. The move to close profitable UK branches proves the chiefs are working against the interest of the ethnic banking and the community. The closures would mean less choice for the bank's customers, reducing turnover and profits," the source added. "To make things worse, most Muslim banks have been squeezed by vulturistic American and British banksters and money laundering cartels, engineered to close down banks in most Muslim countries. It is a can of worms," the source explained. The launderers are named and shamed by GAO/OSI-99-1 (SRTV banks950) report which was suppressed by mass and ethnic media outlets. So, how do US-UK banksters manage to survive? Well for start, it pays to know your banksters. Mexican hit man and drug baron Raul Salinas certainly did. He laundered about US $100 million from Mexico into foreign accounts through Citibank and its affiliates, according to the banned US General Accounting Office (GAO) report that confirms that most US money laundering banks "ignored the law" and their own internal procedures when banking on drug, arms trade, protection and blood money. Citibank earned about US $1.1 million for handling Salinas' accounts; if it had enforced its own policy, Salinas would not have been a customer. Citigroup, for example, contributed nearly US $863,000 in donations to US federal parties and candidates so far this year. FBI money-laundering chief John Kingston confirmed that two American Express bankers recently were convicted under the wilful-blindness theory - turning a blind eye toward a money-launderer. This is not the first time that the very biggest US banksters have been implicated in laundering drug money. In 1986, during the supposedly "tough on crime" Reagan administration, some of the biggest banks - including Bank of America, First Boston Corp, Chase Manhattan, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chemical, Crocker National and Irving Trust - paid civil penalties, some in the millions of dollars, because of money laundering. The New York Times of 22 January 1986, reported that Bank of America, which was fined US $4.75 million, had failed to report 17,000 large cash transactions. But no criminal charges were brought against the banks or any of their officers by the Reagan government. Another banned report (SRTV banks950) confirms that by 1989 US banks were laundering US $110 billion a year. Yes, that is billions, not millions. It is almost impossible for kosher or hallal banks to spy on their legitimate customers and compete with criminal US-UK banking cartel. Most US-UK banks are involved head over heels in the criminal laundering of ever vaster sums of money, without which the giant drug dealers could not possibly survive. Their customers won't see the US-UK banksters behind bars. The low-key way in which this investigation is handled by both the US-UK governments and the mass and ethnic media outlets show that the two countries have no real interest in stopping drug dealing. They only want to use the drug issue as a club against yougsters and the oppressed communities, while the banksters keep doing what they also do - get rich at the expense of the masses. There is a silent, secret but nonetheless deadly partnership between the drug barons and the lords of high finance. They need each other. The drug business could not stand as a big business without this relationship. Super-profits are as much an attraction to the US-UK banksters as drugs are to drug addicts. For the big US-UK banks, the rollover of huge sums means big profit because it involves little in the way of bookkeeping compared to the accounts of thousands of small depositors. The drug business has grown to an international financial phenomenon whose magnitude staggers the imagination. It is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. This can't exist, let alone grow, without the protection of the banksters. The bankers got a completely free hand from the Reagan and Bush administrations, which released them from any kind of significant restraints on who they could lend to, where the money was kept, and how they related to the US Federal Reserve, the government's central bank. The big banksters today are mostly autonomous. Their operations are secret. Nobody really knows how the central bank functions in relation to the multinational financial groups. Then there are parasitic ATM surcharges that harm consumers by slowing the expansion of ATMs and reducing the number of ATMs currently deployed without making anyone better off. In the US, for example, more than 70 per cent of consumers use ATM machines. The US-UK governments should ban ATM fees, and encourage expansion of ATMs in retail outlets all over the world. For most non-western banks it is time to examine the changing dynamics, banking products, technology, and management challenges in the global banking industry. It is time to analyse the retail interface in the delivery of the next generation of borderless financial services 24 hours a day. It is time to look at online business and personal banking as a set of performance-engineering processes or bundled products. A bank without customers is like a pen within ink. Banks rise and fall on the basis of their financial might, size, growth, productivity, efficiency, range of products and the potential of their global, borderless market. The banking system revolves around borrowing, lending, loan and usury (interest). More than 80 per cent of consumers in the US and EU, for example, have homes, cars, businesses and their whole life in debt. Global banks don't expect to get something for nothing. Customers are influenced by global, world-class banking trends, demanding efficiency and access to their money 24 hours a day in millions of towns and villages in the world. The banks attract customers by investing in information and technologies, and by implementing coherent marketing action plans. There are no easy, cheap solutions when it comes to catch-up and compete with the global banking rivals. Prudent corporate and personal customers won't pick up the cost of mismanagement. The problems signal poor management of all resources and assets. The problems can not be 'chatted away'. Most merchants and retailers now accept credit card payments. Major credit card groups and banks realised the potential revenue streams available online and on the Internet. Currently, some five million people and businesses use online banking, and by the end of 2001, that number is set increase by 17 million to 22 million. Effective marketing and 'visibility' is vital to reach the customer. World-class banks increase visibility and provide reliable information to a vast, and growing sect of investors and corporates online and on the Internet. ATMs, business and personal online banking offer customers time saving options all over the world. The computerised online banking and financial services, ATMs and the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet reaches the parts most Pakistani, Indian or Bangla banks can't, won't or don't. It is like having millions of branches or outlets, reaching customers all over the world. The technology is creating a cashless society. The technology is satisfying rapidly growing demands, choices, needs and conveniences. Bankers' online / Internet services and fact files often include share-prices; tips on investment and business opportunities; customer and country profiles; home, car and business insurance; mortgages; management tips; money matters etc. etc. Banks play an important role in financing small, medium and large businesses. Most unsecured microcredits, for example, often help produce a good rate on investment (ROI), lendings or loans. They often help bring vibrancy of the market economy to the poorest people and villages across the world. Mission critical turnaround is a task requiring high calibre, competent, efficient and productive leadership with clarity, determination and transparency to rebuild customer confidence. This requires a sense of mission, purpose and direction. But where can I get a kosher mattress to keep my hallal money at home? Developing....... for feedback, further info and updates contact Shanti RTV news agency by email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Presented by: Shanti RTV (c) Monday 08 November 1999 (habib998) [The author, Parveez Syed, is an investigative journalist and a mass media programming consultant. He has exposed many liars, subverters and deceivers. Moles and whistleblowers e-mail leaks and briefings to him. His copyrighted, unique features are often plagiarised or developed into probing factual tv documentaries. The features are archived on hundreds of websites worldwide]. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Parveez Syed's direct contact details are: One Stuart Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8RA1 UK Telephone: London-UK 0044-(0)7831-196693 INTERNET emailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ends;
