According to the Moneylife, the bank, Bank of Maharashtra has finally withdrawn a circular that is urging the staff for viewing the COVID-19 pandemic as a business opportunity in order to sell the insurance products.
On this, finally the bank issues an apology for their statement and the backlash and hatred they got on social media. Chief manager for media relation at Bank of Maharashtra, Satish kumar said- “We deeply apologise for the wordings of the said circular, but our intentions were to serve our customers and their family members in the fight against COVID-19 as it is now covered under health insurance policies. The said circular has been withdrawn by the bank.”
It is the answer of the circular they have published which was issued on 17th March. The circular stated-“Performance of the bank under the ABC campaign is nowhere near expectations in both life insurance and non-life insurance campaigns, which is very disappointing…Looking at the risk of pandemic, ‘COVID-19’ awareness and demand for health insurance have increased. This is the time to use this as a business opportunity and help our customers by offering suitable health insurance products.”
Tuljapurkar said-“Bank staff is attending the branches and office with great risk…asking them to canvass for this product is unimaginative and asking customers to purchase this product is cruel…alluring staff by offering incentives and linking it with their performance is further crueller,”
The circular had a target set of INR 3 lakh from March 18-21 to all the zones. It said- “Successful zone will be recognised as ‘pro-health zone’ with a trophy by the insurance company. Performance report shall be appraised to top management separately.