Annual closing

 In a career spanning close to three and half decades, I would have faced equal number of the year end closing days that’s 31st March. I am, therefore, no stranger to the critical importance of this day and the action that typically takes place on this day.

Of course, over the years the nature of activities of this annual closing day has changed drastically. In the earlier days of my career, it was all about finishing critical operations – applying interest on deposit and loan accounts, tallying all the books for the bank’s balance sheet and preparing the annual returns for submission to HO for annual inspection by RBI. However, with computerisation and automation, all the above has now changed and the branches can focus on garnering additional business till the last hour to be as close to their annual targets, if not achieve or overachieve them. Nature of business targets also that was mainly focused on achieving deposit targets is now changed to CASA, fees and cross sell points! 

However, notwithstanding the change in nature of activities or priorities, 31st March continues to be a day of huge importance to a banker and now that I am no longer in the thick of the action , all the memories of the past annual closings come back to me, plunging me into nostalgia. 

Happy annual closing to all my banker friends.