Technology Transfer

Last week, I called my bank in Canada to see if I could get a new printout of a particular statement. With my various moves as well as the general lack of a rigid home organization system, the loss of documents was bound to happen [or so I like to tell myself!]. Now, I don't call my bank every day, but I do end up having to call every couple of months and I know the drill for getting banking information over the phone. The bank representative will ask a subset to all of the following questions: what different accounts/services do you have with the bank; when and for how much were the most recent account transactions; what are the balances in the accounts; do you have telephone banking; do you have any investments; what are the automatic deposits and debits set up for your accounts; and of course, the ubiquitous, what is your mother's mother's mother's maiden name.

While I am always prepared to answer the questions, last week I was feeling particularly cognizant of the answers since I had just withdrawn money a day earlier and had a pretty good idea of my balances. In any case, after running through the questions, the operator told me that with the answers I provided she was unable to authorize access to my account. I was speechless, utterly speechless - and those who know me will know that speechlessness is not a trait that I routinely possess. Of course, when I asked which question/answer in particular led her to reject me, she couldn't answer and instead suggested that I go into my branch for more information. When I reminded her that I lived in Brazil and therefore would not be able to just pop into the branch, she didn't seem to have a solution. My solution was to simply call back and speak to a different operator.

In a strange twist of events, I also called my Brazilian bank to request some account information. After giving the account number, the bank representative said that in order to authorize access, I would have to provide my CPF [personal registation number - without which you are no one]. I quickly provided the number and voilà, she was ready to reveal every single detail of my account to me.

It's almost like I was dreaming....

post-scriptum: I actually found the Brazilian response a little light on the bureaucracy [perhaps the exception that proves the rule?] CPFs aren't that difficult to discover....