A friend who works for a regulator ABROAD came to India to teach at arguably at the best 2 Business schools in India. As is customary his father took him to the bank to tie up some loose ends. The Branch Manager offerred him a Unit Linked Plan with a 40% assured return. Now here we are talking about a guy who teaches PhD students risk tolerance, risk profiling, asset allocation, equity markets etc. so when he heard this he flipped and said no. No, thank you.

The joke does not end here.

He then went for a meeting with some regulators in India. They said “Oh, this product does not fall within our purview”.

That was regulator speak, completely predictable.

I sent this joke on sms to 15 life insurance company employees, 11 banks, 6 media people, and a few other sundry friends.

I got 7 sms’s from bankers asking “Was it our bank?”

I realised how deep the malaise is!