Of banks and banking

A lovely day today because I had to go to the bank.

The trip takes somewhere between an hour and an hour and a half – banking in Diébougou is not for the impatient – and involves firstly going into the main entrance – into AIRCON – and waiting in line – or some sort of line – for the man at the counter to admit that 5 weeks in, I still have not been sent a cheque book or cashpoint card.  All normal.  I have to go to see M. Barry. 

This involves going out via a side entrance, through a positively glacial office – WONDERFUL – and sitting in a courtyard under a corrugated roof looking at the huge mangoes on the mango tree in the courtyard, and at the two Mercedes driven by M. Barry and his form-filler. 

M.Barry is my manager.  He has a form-filler because BF banking is all on paper, and involves many, many forms, and ledgers.  M. Barry talks while his filler does the writing.  I need a counter cheque drawn so when it is my turn, I file into M.Barry’s chilly office – BLISS – and explain once again that my card and cheque book have not come, that I do not have a passport as it is in Ouagadougou, but that he must once again break the rules and write me a counter cheque.  M.Barry feigns reluctance but we both know he is now so compromised by my insistence, and has done this several times, that he will have to give in. 

We also acknowledge tacitly that my identity is not in question, as he saw my passport on the day I opened the account and I have a certified copy of it and I work with his wife…. And unlike many clients, he does not have to take a fingerprint to confirm my identity.  I have to sign in five different places on the cheque, forms and ledgers and counterfoils to get a counter cheque drawn.  Then the form-filler has to carry it back across the courtyard to the teller who is, of course busy, so I wait in line again.  And then I get money from my account. 

 
I could, of course, go to the cashpoint and using my Lloyds card take out squillions of FCFAs from my London account (about 750 to the pound – numbers get silly quite quickly) – but where would be the interaction? The aircon?  I am warned that it could take months to get a cashpoint card – when I opened the account I was told three weeks ….. we shall see.

Apart from the aircon, what I am loving about BF banking – and indeed bureaucracy in general - is that everyone has a rubber stamp and everything gets rubber-stamped.  I am loading an example – my bus ticket for the week-end – rubber-stamped not once but twice.  When we go on a trip from VARENA we take with us a letter explaining our mission for the day, who is in the car etc, and we have to stop at a national police station in our destination town and get it rubber-stamped.  My internet and telephone receipts – both rubber-stamped.  The electrician who came to repair the fridge has one and stamped my bill.  I want one – and not one that says something like ‘I don’t have time for this bullshit’ because I already have one - thanks, Sarah - but a proper, round one using bright blue ink.