Customer service in Indian banks

I quoted from an ET story sometime back about the poor quality of services in London, including in banking. Why would a competitive, modern banking system deliver shoddy customer service?
You get an answer when you look at the Indian banking system. After having opened up to competition in a big way over a decade and a half ago, we are getting serious complaints.

That's because customer service is not just about speed or promptness, nice-looking branches or even a choice of diverse channels such as ATMs and internet. Pricing and charges are always an issue- and it hurts when you find that the marble interiors in bank branches are being paid for by extortionate lending rates, hidden charges and lack of transparency in pricing.

One other item in customer service that is in the news is the methods used by banks to effect loan recovery. Private banks mostly use recovery agents and these agents do not hestitate to use force and intimidation to effect recovery. Bankers say this is necessary when borrowers wilfully resort to default. But, I argue in my ET column,A fair deal for bank customers, that problems in recovery often have to do with bad lending practices and that tighter regulation is needed. Credit information bureaus and better rules for repossession will also help.

But, under no circumstances can the regulator allow banks to resort to coercion. The ordinary citizen already has a sense of living in a lawless environment where he has little recourse against powerful individuals and institutions. Imagine what would happen as banks fan out further into the smaller cities and towns. The cooption of the underworld into the banking system is the ultimate nightmare.