My first few days of stay in one of the worlds most developed economies USA, has made me think in a lot of different directions related to the methodical ways of doing things here. It feels like a CMM Level 5 country with so many processes / methods to do things and everything well organised and recorded in all facets of day to day life, not to mention your credit history being the unique identifier.

I was keenly looking forward to open a bank account for managing my financials and hence came across a lot of names like Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America etc to name a few. The issue with a lot of these was their scattered presence across the United States. While Chase which is offering good deal and is present almost everywhere, it wasnt at my work location whereas Citi which is among the world's biggest names doenst carry a word-of-mouth recommendation among the masses.

By now you must've thought about the way so far the blog has been scattered, let me bring you the point of discussion here. Taking the example of Citi. Everyone knows it, everyone keenly follows / reads about it but still none recommends it. I was surprised to see that in this one week of my stay here, and an interaction with locals as well as resident aliens working here, absolutely NONE recommended Citi. That made me think since past a few days that where is it going, Is it the right thing?

Look at the millions spent over facilitating everything online, look at Mr Pandit taking a pay cut in order to restore everything and look at the global presence it carries and the sheer size of its operations BUT the big questions now comes is -> Are these millions of expense/investment, the paycut and the operational magnanimity worth it?

When the biggest drivers of a bank, its customers and hence the potential customers themselves are not recommending it, whats the use really. I already opened a NRE account back in my country with Citi and came here with a prepared mind to open a direct deposit with them but now I am in two minds with majority of my brain cells igniting against Citi.

This again strengthens my thoughts of giving 'branch banking' an equal footage with the online / mobile counterpart. A customer while enjoys transacting while sunbathing in Miami, it equally wants a face or a human being live in front who is of equal assistance like a web portal. But, are the banks really showing any traction in branch banking space, I do not have sufficient data but I am sure not everyone is.

Again I would ask the same question, Is it the right thing?...