Top 10 Banker Jokes

I'm still thinking about how the world came to such a prolonged low-interest rate milieu in which people who are thrifty, save up and put their hard-earned money in the bank, and who try to pay for big-ticket items with minimal loans end up losers -- unless they buy into structured deposits or investment-linked products. And they will lose anyway, if these higher-risk "products" go badly.

It wasn't always like that. We trusted this bank to give us a decent interest on our deposits, And it encouraged thrift and savings...

 
But, well, it was acquired by a bigger bank. Note that it's tagline above says nothing, really (probably crafted by a lawyer). The first part is merely a geographical descriptor, ie, our bank branches are located in your neighbourhood. So, the second part becomes meaningless -- if you're hoping for a value statement there.

Earlier this week, though, there was an ST interview (April 15) with a banker from the big brother bank:

I would like to see her go further and acknowledge that her banking group -- or at least POSB, the "little brother" --  embrace both the spirit and letter of corporate social responsibility (CSR), as FairPrice has been doing since its inception :

Yes, no one is asking the banks to lose money "doing it" (far from it... their CEOs are doing very, very, well). But if banks are beholden to their shareholders at the expense of ordinary depositors, then a new business model that is depositor-centric must be created if we still value thrift and the habit of saving.

On this note, I'll conclude with this compilation of the "Top 10 Banker Jokes" by the online edition of the Telegraph newspaper:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8943027/Top-ten-banker-jokes.html