Friday , November 22 2024

Banks cannot freeze people’s accounts even if there is no KYC: RBI


Rbi 1 1200 Jpg

The Reserve Bank has reprimanded those banks which are freezing accounts due to lack of KYC. Actually, due to lack of KYC, banks are freezing the accounts of those people in whose accounts Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) funds come from the government. This includes subsidy, pension, money from any special scheme etc. Apart from this, the Reserve Bank has also held these banks responsible for the delay in KYC update. Due to this, accounts of many people have been frozen.

advised to follow instructions

Addressing directors of private sector banks, RBI Deputy Governor Swaminathan J said banks should ensure that the KYC guidelines are followed with both accuracy and compassion.

He said that RBI had already issued instructions to the banks. It was said that in the absence of KYC, banks should not freeze those accounts in which funds of government schemes are transferred.

  • Swaminathan said that the Reserve Bank has come to know about many problems related to customers.
  • From time to time, there is excessive delay at the bank level in updating the KYC of customers.
  • Lack of proactive approach in assisting customers and obtaining necessary documents.
  • Inadequacy of staff to accomplish many important tasks. For this reason the customer was refused to do any work.
  • Referring customer to home branch for each task.
  • There is a delay in updating information in the system even after customers provide all the required documents.

Customers are not getting paid

Swaminathan said that due to the way the guidelines are being implemented, many accounts are being frozen. Due to which customers are not able to get their money. He said that the board should ensure that there is no deficiency in the service of banks. Especially for senior citizens etc.