TRY opening a savings account at any bank and the new accounts clerk will run you through a litany of rules and regulations that boil down to you—the depositor—getting penalized for each and every infraction that at the end of the day you’ll find that your hard earned money has been lost to fines for not observing such miniscule conditions as not being able to maintain an average monthly maintaining balance.

For all that hassle, your savings account must not fall below P10,000 a month to earn a lousy interest rate of 0.25 percent a year equivalent to P25, or an even lousier annual interest rate of 0.10 percent for a monthly maintaining balance of P1,000—that’s a measly P1 a year.