Outright Profiteering

If you have been reading the papers lately, you should be aware of the latest headline i.e. the massive earthquake which struck China. I will not go into the details like the name of the tectonic plate which caused the earthquake, the size of the earthquake on the Ritcher Scale, or the number of casualties. These facts are easily avaliable if you want to search for them.

I am just disturbed by the "wolf in sheep clothing" gesture of local and overseas financial institutions (FIs). If you are aware, these FIs have pledged to provide free remittance services to China for disaster relief. To the ordinary and naive mortals, this is a great humanitarian gesture. But wait.. THINK AGAIN...

Do you really believe that these FIs will remit each sum of cash instantly as and when they recieve it from you? Of course NO! They will want to consolidate all the cash first and in the meanwhile decide to hold the cash for say one month period. Then during this one month, invest the money in some financial instruments and EARN interests!!!! When they have accumulated enough cash and earned sufficient interests to cover their costs, then they will remit ONLY the principal amount to China; minus the interests earned of course!!!!!!!

To those folks working in these FIs, wipe that smirk off your face if you think your bank is doing a good deed. DUH...