After the introduction of credit cards in the 1980s and debit cards in the 1990s, plastic money has become the predominant form of currency in modern India (Editorial – “The perils of plastic”, Oct.25). With this step, banks have begun a radical shift in customer service, even discouraging customers from visiting branches for cash withdrawals and instead directing them to vending machines. Even if banking has become technology-driven, it is still the primary and ethical responsibility of banks to protect customer interests. Unfortunately, even laid down norms such as alerting the account holder on transactions are not followed in many instances.
C.R. Ananthanarayanan,Bengaluru
