OSCE

You may wonder why I felt like going through an OSCE.

Alas, I had five stations in 90 minutes:

1. The friendly woman I mentioned yesterday, who checked my documents and started the procedure.
2. I was then led to another room to meet a young lady, who had the words financial sales clearly written on her face. Her purpose was obvious - and so was my response.
3. I was next brought to see an apparently more senior woman, who did the risk assessment for me before I could set up an investment account.
4. Then I saw yet another young lady who activated the investment account.
5. And, finally, I was brought back to the first friendly woman, who arranged the transfer of a small sum to Adler's new account as the seeding money.

To me, the unexpected bit was obviously that risk assessment business.

Well, that's required by the Securities and Futures Commission after the financial tsunami. As you know, the whole process was recorded. It was not a passive process of recording what the bank explained to me; I had to gave verbal response (saying "yes" or "agree") at appropriate points - so much so the woman and I needed a brief rehearsal before the formal recording began. In addition, I had to sign several times on the document, and was actually given a copy of the signed document after the whole process.

How did I feel during the process ?

I felt great ! Thank goodness our extra-terrestrials have no experience on this, otherwise they would ask for the same when we are obtaining a consent for any medical procedure.

That is really disastrous.