Bank declares man who did not get loan defaulter

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Syed Bukhar Shah
PESHAWAR: An aggrieved client of the United Bank Ltd (UBL) has threatened to file a suit for damages in the court of law if bank authorities failed to apologise to him for what he called their unprofessional attitude for the last two years. However, the bank denies the charges.

Capt (Retd) Dr Abdur Rahim, Deputy Medical Superintendent Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, who had applied for a personal loan in the second week of January 2007, said he was not given any loan but the bank was seeking recovery and had even declared him a defaulter. That was evident from the Credit Information Report issued by the State Bank of Pakistan on July 22, he added.

However, UBL Manager Recovery and Legal Waqar Ahmad Khan said Dr Rahim was never declared a defaulter because he had not received the loan. He said Rahim had applied for a personal loan in 2007, but he could not receive the DD (demand draft), which the bank had sent through courier after the completion of all required formalities. Rahim, he said, neither received the DD nor he cancelled the loan.

He said he closed five to six cases, including that of Rahim, when he took over the charge here. He said both the client and bank officials should have informed the branch concerned that the customer had not received the loan.

Since the headquarters, the manager said, was not informed about the cancellation of the loan, the customer was getting letters of installments. However, he said, he had written off all fines and cancelled the loan.

Rahim complained that despite repeated requests the bank officials were neither ready to remove his name from the list of defaulters nor were they holding an inquiry when the loan was released and deposited in which account, if they were true in their contention that they had disbursed the loan.

Rahim, in his application to the Banking Mohtasib, said he had applied for a personal loan, but was declared a defaulter without having received any loan.

He accused representatives of the UBL recovery branch of harassing him through phone calls, asking him to deposit loan installments.

“I have asked UBL authorities time and again to hold an inquiry into the matter, but to no avail,” he complained. “I refused to sign bank documents,” he said, adding if the bank had failed to deliver the loan, it should apologise to its client instead of resorting to such intimidating tactics. “It was not a card loan. I have the right to know to which account it has been credited,” he said.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=190694