Why do ladies think male bankers are stingy? ....

A young banker who is searching for a wife recently got introduced to a beautiful final-year student of a popular university in Lagos. After making the acquaintance, both entered into conversation, and the girl politely asked ‘Please, where do you work?’ “I’m a banker,” the man replied.
‘Banker? abeg o,” she quipped, genuinely alarmed. And looking away from him, almost in a gesture of dismissal, she added: ‘They are too stingy for my liking.’
Perplexed, the man asked “Why do you girls always say this?” Apparently that wasn’t the first time.
Most ladies usually see bankers as people who are not only comfortable but who  also have enough money to throw around. This is probably because of their clean haircuts, designer shirts, suits and shoes, and sometimes their flashy cars and carriage. But things are not always how they seem!
Lara Adeoye, a youth corps member, recounts her experience to Saturday Tribune: “I think bankers are simply overrated. I used to think that they were generally comfortable until I did my one year industrial training there (at a bank). It’s not all about the nice clothes and flashy cars they drive; they are forced to do so just to impress prospective customers.
“The shortages we paid were more than the salaries we received. Above all, it is a ‘corporate prison’. I can’t afford to go back there now for any reason,” she said.
A banker based in Lagos, Babatunde Harrolds, however, believes that describing bankers as generally stingly is a baseless generalisation. “So, a lawyer cannot be stingy? Being a banker automatically makes us stingy? It’s like saying all doctors are good people. It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

As far as he is concerned, bankers are prudent and not necessarily stingy. “I am not stingy but I always believe in spending money on priorities first before any other thing. For instance, if my ‘madam’ asks me for N10,000 to make her hair and the DStv subscription is due, I will pay that (subscription) first before attending to her hair. You might describe that as being stingy, but I believe in proper planning and budgeting before spending,” he said.
Oladimeji Ojo admitted that bankers might not be ‘free givers’ but that it is because they do not earn their income easily. “Of course, we are stingy, because we earn through the hardest way and high level of uncertainty. We have to save for the proverbial rainy day as some of us are already in now,” he said.
  Another banker, Laja Akinosun, said: “Look, if you think bankers are stingy, then they are. Why do you think they are stingy? It’s because you ladies demand more than they earn. You don’t expect a banker to hand over 22 days pay to you because you are cool and chick, do you?”
Femi Sodipo justifies why bankers don’t give freely. “Bankers are not stingy people. I used to be a banker before the tsunami last December. The issue is this:  Too many girlfriends to maintain, family members calling, buying too many unnecessary things to pay later. The order of priority changes for some people, what I just gave you was my own scale of troubles.” he said.
Lamide Akingbule has a different perspective: “In my own view, bankers are not stingy but rather conservative. Working from 7:30 am to, sometimes, 8:30pm is enough to make them conservative. People feel it’s all about working under the air conditioning system and looking fresh all day; well, let me tell you that banking is not easy. Fine, you work under the air conditioning system, but you don’t even feel its coolness. Why? It’s usually due to stress and internal pressure. This reason alone is enough to make bankers conservative or ‘stingy’.
“Some foolish bankers spend above their means, buying too many unnecessary things to impress their numerous friends; things like too many suits, shirts, shoes, perfumes and all. A suit costs an average of N20,000 – and all these are on post-dated cheques! A foolish banker’s life is a life of illusions. But I won’t blame them because that is what the corporate world demands of them.”
Akin Oke says: “Bankers are stingy; so? I’m a banker and my ears have grown dull from hearing this line from my female dates. I think some girls need to be told some basic truth: using that line simply suggests that you lack self-esteem.
“All those cash you see at the banks are all accounted for. We don’t have access to them. Some of us pay more cash shortages than we earn as our monthly pay! How do you expect a man in this position to be ‘generous? We love our jobs and wouldn’t steal or live above our means in order to satisfy your money-craving appetite. Besides, to be honest, the profession is overrated.”
Ojo Michael also defends bankers: “We’re not Father Christmas; we have responsibilities to our siblings too. Imagine. I was being friendly with a particular lady and the next thing she started asking for was a BlackBerry torch!  I think it’s because of the false assumption that banks print money and as such, bankers should have it in abundance. You know, if you are dating a bottling company’s staff, you will never lack at least a bottle of the drink the company bottles. Good grief! I’m more indebted now as a banker than I was as a civil servant because of high expectations from people.”
Uche  Mbadinuju, also speaks about the issue: “If you think bankers are stingy, try and date a doctor. They (doctors) are the most clenched-fisted humans I have ever known! A bank’s salary package, like most others, is made up of a lot of benefits that the staff never get to go home with; for example, medicals. It will also include items that are not paid monthly such as leave allowances. Consequently, their salaries also get hit with deductions such as payroll taxes, pension contribution, and statutory deduction and sometimes ‘upfronts’. ‘Upfronts’ are bulk salary advances paid to employees to enable them meet personal needs that often require huge cash. It could either be three or six months’ salary paid upfront.”
Are bankers stingy? Celebrity blogger, Laila, said “They really are! They are what the Igbo call ‘aka gum’ (literally, ‘sticky hands’). But on a more serious note, most people, especially ladies, have the wrong impression about how rich bankers are, not to talk of how things are tight right now in the country.”
Kemi Aofoebi, a 400 Level student of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, narrated her experience with a ‘stingy banker’: “I met this guy when I went to pay my school fees in one of the branches of a new generation bank in Ijebu-Ode. What attracted me to him was his fresh breath when he cooed into my ear to ask of my name. I quickly sized him up. He was undoubtedly donning a designer shirt; I could see the logo of luxury designer, Giorgio Armani, hand-stitched on the sleeve of his dark blue suit. Although he was not all that handsome, I was sure that he was going to be loaded with cash. What’s more, he is a banker!
“We exchanged phone numbers and he promised to call me later in the evening so that we could hang out. I couldn’t wait to tell my friends about this new catch. I started making mental notes on what to demand from him, and called a friend who sells clothes to help me keep the sexy expensive dress I was admiring the other day and couldn’t afford, as I would soon come and pick it. To cut the story short, it turned out that the guy was so tight-fisted. To even send a recharge card to me was a problem for him. He only called with his bank’s free mobile line and when I eventually called it quits, I sent him a very nasty text message, calling him all sorts of names. My friends couldn’t stop making fun of me while others also relived their experiences in the hands of their banker boyfriends while consoling me. Since then, I vowed never to have anything to do with those stingy creatures again.”
Sesco Love, a security consultant, defended the frugal lifestyle of bankers, saying “because they know better the value of money, (they) don’t spend anyhow. But ladies think that because one is a banker, he should spend more.”
Also in defence of bankers, a research consultant, John Ogbe, said: “The economic principles and norms that guide their day-to-day business activities, transactions and interactions, and also their exposure to business ethics that stipulate a life of investment with positive yielding returns in the short, medium or long term could be one of the factors that limit their nature of reckless and extravagant spending.
“On the other hand, when a banker discovers that the lady is in the habit of spending recklessly and (that continuing to give her) would amount to economic waste or gross loss, the tendency for stinginess will thus increase proportionally.”
 Fredreik Nwigwe summarised the issue thus: “some ladies think that bankers have access to money in the bank and want to spend it, not knowing that some of the bankers  can’t even boast of N20,000 in their account.”Written by  Kate Ani