Board to empower customers with copy of banking code guidelines

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 24

Perturbed over low awareness among the banks’ customers about their rights, which often leads to non-observance of the Fair Practices Code and non-adherence by the banks, the Banking Codes and Standard Board of India (BCSBI) will write a letter to the chairmen of all member banks to hand over banking code copy in a readable font (font size of at least 10) to customers.

The code copy is a code of customer rights, which sets the minimum standards of banking practices banks have to follow while dealing with individual customers. It provides protection to customers and explains how the banks are expected to deal with customers in their day-to-day operations.

The code empowers the customers to deal with sub-standard service. If the banks which have adopted the code do not comply with it, the customers can lodge complaints. “Deficiency in service is a cognisable offence and the banks can be pulled up by the RBI for it. In fact, of the 85,131 complaints received against banks in 2015, 29% are related to non-compliance of the code,” said AC Mahajan, chairman, BCSBI.

Currently, the BSCBI has 136 members, which includes 71 scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), 47 regional rural banks (RRBs) and 18 urban cooperative banks.