Know Your Customer - A committee on banking standards looks to overhaul services

Gypped, harassed or simply hapless — if you are a banks’ retail customer, you are likely to have gone through all these feelings at some point or the other. Now there is hope for you. A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee on service standards in banks has come out with draft norms on various banking issues including on third-party KYC data bank, bigger-value prepaid services for frequent travellers, blocking lost or stolen cards through text message, more flexibility in international use of cards, etc. It seeks to rehaul and modernise the process of customer service and grievance resolution for bank customers. The process has been in the works for the past 36 years. It started with the R.K. Talwar Committee on customer service in banks (1975). It was followed 15 years later by another committee headed by S.S. Tarapore (1990). M. Damodaran is the boss of the latest one. There is hope; the subject has now been viewed from all angles over the years by experts — Talwar was a commercial banker and a former chairman of State Bank of India; Tarapore was deputy governor of RBI; and Damodaran headed the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

BANKING RELIEF

Simple savings accounts without minimum balance A third-party KYC data bank Listing of charges for basic services Providing floating rate housing loans on a nondiscriminatory asis Compensation for delayed return or loss of title deeds in the custody of banks Zero liability against loss during ATM and online transactions Blocking lost or misused ATM cards through text message Prepaid instruments up to Rs 50,000 for frequent travellers Customer to fix limits, area of operation and activation for international use on cards

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