Only in France

Today I received a letter from my bank manager here, who wanted to reassure me personally (along with all the other account holders obviously, but it was a letter addressed to me) that despite his promotion to the higher echelons of the bank, he would be sad to be leaving behind the excellent team he'd been working with. Furthermore, that he had every faith in his successor in the branch to deal with my account and any accompanying concerns professionally and efficiently.

On the one hand, this may be a prime example of the excess of bureaucracy and paper wasted that typifies French officialdom (The Other Half received exactly the same missive) but, back in the UK, the Bank of Call Centre buck-passing (too ranty? try changing your name from abroad...) no longer places any relevance on branch membership, much less the idea of a personal touch.

When we visit our branch here, we can make an appointment with the same named advisor each time (who speaks English) and the receptionist knows us by name.

I may be miscalling it to say 'only in France', but it's definitely no longer British.