Strange Finnish Banking Law?

Before we got married, Annikki had no bank account. She used to get paid in cash on a Friday morning. By Friday night she would have spent all of it at various local shops in the area!

I had a bank account in Barclays Bank on Finchley Road in London. Since I only got money transfer twice a year from India, I had to budget my life and live strictly within that budget. 

At that time we were only allowed £600 as the student transfer plus the fees for our college, which was a princely sum of £240.

It was very difficult to manage on  £600. That is another story I will blog another time. 

When we moved from London to Shrewsbury after I graduated and we got married I  started our joint bank account. 

Ever since then we have always had joint bank accounts as there was no saying my or your money.

We lived of a strict budget and the sum spent on our wedding, a grand sun of  £100 overdraft from the Barclay’s Bank in Shrewsbury was cleared by us in one year

When we moved to Indi,a again we had only a joint bank account. There Annikki was in charge of the money and budgeting. She had a few extravagances as I would be travelling round India almost 20 days s month.

On one such trip I returned to find my office room had been turned into a zoo with birds, and even a mongoose as a pet. 

That is also another blog for the future!  

When we moved back to Finland we started our Nordea account. As child benefit was paid only to the mother of the children, a Postipankki account was started in Annikki’s name. But she converted it to a joint account.

That Postipankki account has over time become a Danske bank account but we hardly use it

Because Annikki got a loyalty card from the S-Group, they started a bank account to pay the monthly bonus. 

Annikki again converted it into a joint acount over two decades ago.

Last week we found that the S-Psankki account was not working. 

All our salaries, now pensions are all paid into our Nordea account and we transfer s small sum for our monthly living expenses to the S-Psnkki account as we do almost 100% of our shoppang in Prisma.

Today we went to the customer service of S-Pankki to find out why our bank account was not working.

The lady went through all the requirements as our names, address, email address and finally the telephone number. 

Then came a shock, as she said that our account was stopped because we have the same telephone number. She said the Finnish law demands that we must have our own phone numbers as they have to send text messages (OTPs) to us individually for the verification code.

Annikki, who is quite meek and mild, was flabbergasted at this. She said on our family we had only one telphone and we did not intend to get a new phone justfor the convenience of the bank.

I told the lady that the Nordea bank had no such requirement. Even on Paypal the same phone number is used for both of us.

Annikki was ready to stop the S-Panikki account altogether as we only use it to get the deposit of the monthly bonus.

Better sense prevailed and I told the lady that Annikki would not be using her access to the account and only I woulkd use it so only one phone number would suffice!

We think it is stupid to ask customers to have separate phone numbers for the convenience of the bank. 

The Nordea system is more relevant as they provide one with s code calculator and with that both of us can access the bank without access to text messages ffom the bank. 

The only reason we keep the two banks are because the Nordea one is used by me as my Personal

Identifier  and the S-Pankki one is for Annikki.

I hope this new set up will not make it more complicated for us. 

Annikki has no intention to buy a phone and the iPhone does not have a dual SIM option!

Who can be your mentor?

Who can be your mentor?

1989:Vishnu, Veena, Saroopya, Sahitya and Vishnu's mother in 

Chennai with Annikki and me.

I have blogged about two  great people who were my mentors, Dr. Anna Mani and Tan Sri Dr. B. C. Shekhar.

But one of my greatest mentors was a young man who worked for me.

 When I tell him this today, he just cannot believe that he was my mentor as he had great admiration for me. 

He came to work for my consulting company from PSG College in Coimbatore to do a marketing research programme of three months.

Once he walked into my room and I asked him to sit down to give him his first assignment, I knew I had a person who was unique.

I used to do a test when I was interviewing people for a job. I would ask them to write me an essay about some well known human being.

99% of the people I interviewed would ask me a series of question about why it was relevant, or what should they write about, how long the essay should be or something which meant they needed guidance.

Only one in a haundred would leave the room and turn up with an essay about the topic.

I got this advice from a book about Col. Arthur Wagner, who told Col. Andrew Summers [sic] Rowan, that he had to deliver a message from US President McKinley to reach  information regarding the Spanish forces in Cuba and the condition of the insurgent Cuban forces. to General Gracia . He called in Col. Rowan to whom he handed a letter and asked him to reach this message to General Gracia. He gave no information about the   location or any other details relevant to the task.

There are many versions to this story but the best account is found at "How I got the message to General Gracia".

The officer picked up the message and went out and elivered the message to whom it was addressed.

Such people are doers, while others, whatever their good qualities, are followers. A doer is one hundred times more valuable than a follower.

This young man executed his first market research project within the alotted time, only coming to me when he needed some technical advice which he could not possibly know.

I hired this young man and he served me diligently for almost a decade.

When I then started a production company, I asked him to be my Chief Executive Officer. He and his family were my closest associates.

I never had to give him instructions. He knew my diary and he would always have the relevant papers ready for me without me having to ask him.

What I learnt from him was of immense value to me when I moved to Finland and started working for an organisation. I followed what he taught me as I was then 10 steps ahead of everyone else.

Being one of the earliest foreigners to work in the University, I started at the bottom of the ladder in the Microelectronics Laboratory in the University of Oulu. Within three years, because of my performance, I became the Acting Laboratory Manager and within five ýears I became the Chief Engineer. 

My work output was so high, and for a person who had no experience in the field of Microelectronics, I achieved what no one had done before me. My salary was the highest of any non-professorial staff.

When I left the University to start my own small company in the Technology Village behind Oulu University, I was innudated with work from all the laboratories of the Electrical Engineerting Department, from the Physics and Theoretical Physics Departments and also the Biology, Botany and Zoology departments. 

I had earned the trust of the colleaqgues who had worked with me and their friends around the University. 

They knew that when I promised something, I would deliver the results.

This young man, his wife in India and his children in the USA are lifelong friends. After I left India he was the CEO of another organisations in India. He is retired but his employer still has not let him go.

 I have been priviledged to be mentored by this young man. His name is Vishnu Varadhan, his wife, who makes the best rasam that I know, is Veena. And his two children Saroopya and Sahitya are fine examples of good upbringing.

It is my honour to call him my mentor.