The practice of banks resorting to value-dating of credit in the customer's account to avoid payment of penalty has caught the banking regulator's eye. It has asked banks to put up a stop to this practice forthwith and strictly adhere to the extant instructions of paying penal interest at the stipulated rate to the customers' suo motu without waiting for a claim from customers. Value date is the date on which an account holder can use funds from deposited cheques that have passed through the bank's clearing cycle. Under the extant RBI guidelines, banks are required to pay penal interest at the current RBI LAF Repo Rate (8.50 per cent) plus two per cent for the period of delay/till the date of refund as the case may be to the affected customers. These measures on payment of penal interest for delayed credit/refunds of national electronic funds transfer (NEFT) transactions were instituted with the objective of enhancing customer service and efficiency parameters of the system in view of large-scale growth in electronic payment transactions. Banks have been asked to keep contact details of their CFCs updated at all times and also advise changes, if any, immediately to the National Clearing Cell for updating the central directory placed on the RBI Web site. Emphasising that CFCs are the first point of contact for aggrieved customers and play a vital role in success of NEFT system, the RBI observed that in many instances, the CFC contact details given are non-functional/out-dated and/or there is no response from these numbers or mail-ids, thereby defeating the very purpose of setting up such centres. Banks should ensure that calls made/e-mails sent to CFCs are promptly attended to and sufficient resources are dedicated for the same. Compliance to this effect should also be submitted to the Board of the bank in its next meeting and a copy of the same should be sent to the RBI immediately after the board meeting.
HBL
