The Hindu Business Line : No more unsolicited calls from banks

The Indian Banks Association jointly with MasterCard and card issuing bankers plans to come out with a common `do-not-call registry' to avoid unsolicited telephone calls.

At a meeting on Saturday, IBA and the India Cards Council (ICC) have agreed to work on the common registry.

The move follows the Reserve Bank of India guidelines issued in November 2005, asking banks to set up a do-not-call registry for customers who did not wish to receive calls.

Following this, some banks have set up the registry on their Web sites.

At present, customers have to register separately with various banks, which makes it a cumbersome process.

Today, only those banks that have taken the initiative to set up the registry can offer this facility, said Mr Madhivanan B., Joint General Manager, ICICI Bank. Registering with individual banks would be difficult for customers.

"The regulator was not happy with the way things were progressing. That is why IBA and ICC has suggested the common registry," Mr Madhivanan said. ICICI Bank, one of the banks to offer a do-not-call registry, has about 41,000 customers listed on it.

The IBA-ICC common registry will be operated by an independent service provider. This could be either a technology vendor or a telecom vendor.

Banks will have to adhere to that registry and pay a certain fee for accessing the list, Mr Madhivanan said.

The governance committee of the ICC, including officials from MasterCard International, Central Bank of India, Citibank, HDFC Bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, Vijaya Bank, met today under the aegis of IBA.

Tenders for setting up the common registry will be invited within 90 days, IBA said in a press release.

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No more unsolicited calls from banks