The banking system is the backbone of any country. Banks accept deposits from their clients, distribute loans, transfer money, and perform many other functions that are essential to keeping the financial system running smoothly.

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In India, banks are under immense pressure. On one hand, they have written off ₹16.35 lakh crore (approximately $1.89 trillion) over the past decade. These are loans that banks deemed unrecoverable. Writing off such loans means removing them from the bank's books to present a cleaner, more profitable image while the recovery process technically continues even after the write-off. But one can understand that the loan which could not be recovered after so many years, it would become impossible to recover after a few more years.

Most of these bad loans belong to willful defaulters. Wilful defaulters are those people who have the capacity to repay their loans but deliberately choose not to pay. Who are these people? They are the super-rich and politically powerful, whose names the government hesitates to disclose. According to Reserve Bank of India data, as of March 2024, these willful defaulters collectively owed ₹196441 crore (about $23.6 billion) to the banks which they are not paying.

Despite not recovering this massive sum, banks still show profits in their financial statements. To make up for the losses caused by these powerful defaulters, banks have shifted the burden onto ordinary citizens. One of their tactics is penalizing account holders for not maintaining a minimum monthly balance. In 2024 alone, just 11 public sector banks collected ₹2,331 crore (around $27 million) through such penalties. It must be kept in mind that this figure does not include the State Bank of India (SBI), the largest PSU bank. This money usually comes from the poor and marginalized sections of society. Such people who struggle to keep even a small amount of savings in their accounts. This exploitation doesn't stop there.

Banks are now charging fees for basic services like cash withdrawals, deposits, fund transfers, account enquiries, cheque books, and more after a certain free transactions. This is nothing but an organized loot. On one side, the wealthy evade repayment of huge loans; on the other, common people are nickel-and-dimed just to access their own money.

While the privileged enjoy their lives, poor and middle-class citizens are crushed under financial pressure, some even driven to suicide. This is the harsh reality of our banking system and the nation itself. Is this possible without the collusion of the bankers, politicians and businessmen?

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