Finally, I’m done opening a bank account for my baby Clarisse, a Yippie-i kids account at Maybank. Having kept baby Clarisse’s Chinese New Year ang pow money in the drawer for more than a month, she has a place to keep it now, her own savings account.

We planned to have it done two days ago, Wednesday, but upon arriving we were told there is a large queue already waiting to open new banking accounts. The officer told us not to wait as they are unlikely to finish the applications within office hours that day. But he was quite helpful in filling out the forms so that I could make an appointment for Friday (today) and just hand it in for faster processing. Even so, it took more than half-an-hour today to open a savings account for my baby Clarisse.

What I didn’t expect was for me to open a joint account with baby Clarisse, I need to be employed. When I told the bank officer I’m a housewife, he said the bank would not approve my application because a new policy has been set. I asked why but it is not within his authority to tell me why. So I filled in self-employed instead and to my surprise, was let off the hook.