Indian Teacher’s Sudden $10 Billion Bank Account
Compound interest is one thing, but interest run amok on a bank account is quite another.
For Indian schoolteacher Parijat Saha, who comes from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, his monthly salary is about $700.
The trouble began when he routinely checked his State Bank of India bank account online to confirm a 10,000-rupee (US $200) interest payment.
The results of his search were far from routine, as his new account balance came to a whopping 496 billion rupees (almost $10 billion).
As his shock wore off, the 42-year-old teacher called a friend he knew at the bank to inform them of the gravity of their accounting error.
The bank has not yet offered any explanation, for they know not what has occurred, but the funds remain “uncleared” and cannot be withdrawn even though the amount remains on Saha’s bank balance.
The government runs the State Bank of India (SBI), whose mantra is “Safe Banking with SBI.”
According to the International Business Times, SBI is the largest banking and financial services institution in India.
“We are trying to ascertain what went wrong…We have informed our regional headquarters in Kolkata and national headquarters in Mumbai,” said local branch manager Subhashish Karmakar.
It is an odd fact that Saha’s mistaken bank balance of almost $10 billion is close to India’s entire annual education budget, which is $11.5 billion.
Go figure, or…maybe don’t.
(Link)
Author: +MDeeDubroff on 27-01-2012
