By Alec Hogg
Last October, I spent a fruitful hour with Vernon Hill, founder and chairman of the UK’s Metro Bank. As a 26 year old in his native USA Hill built Commerce Bank from a single branch, selling it just after he’d turned 50 for $8.5bn. He retired for a week before succumbing to the irresistible opportunity screaming at him from London.
What drew Hill to the British banking market was its layers of “stupid rules” that nobody internally bothers to challenge. Like charging for coin deposits; a refusal to prioritise client convenience in branch location; and a ban on canines in branches, an anathema for the dog-loving British. Plus, plus, plus… and eight years later Metro is still growing at over 60% a year and now has assets worth over £10bn.
Stupid bank rules aren’t restricted to the British. I hit into one yesterday when trying to check into FNB’s Slow Lounge at OR Tambo en route to Cape Town. Having left Randburg at the crack of dawn to successfully beat Johannesburg’s traffic, the apologetic receptionist said she was forced to turn me away because I’d arrived an hour earlier than Slow’s 90 minute pre-boarding rule.
So I walked across the corridor where the SAA lounge happily accepted my UK Investec card. There’s no stupid 90 minute rule there, its staff smilingly welcoming me into a massively upgraded facility I’d otherwise never have seen. On my next visit home, one previously staunchly loyal BA customer will reciprocate by switching back to SAA. I’m surely not alone. Stupid rules have unintended consequences. Ask Vernon Hill.
