The Reserve Bank of India is looking to remove hurdles faced by customers in opening new bank accounts.
In its bid to make the process hassle-free, a team of senior officials from the RBI, including its Executive Director B. Mahapatra, Regional Director, Sadakkatadulla and the Banking Ombudsman Sujatha E. Prasad, were in the city to seek suggestions from the public. Coimbatore is the second city for the visiting team.
They were in Cuttack last Friday. Mahapatra said the team would visit Mysore in the first week of July.
While suggestions poured in plenty, Mahapatra maintained that he did not really get good suggestions.
‘The issues are common,’ he said referring to the suggestions put forth by the customers who attended the meet at Cuttack. “The RBI has eased the KYC guidelines for banks. Prospective customers can submit a single document such as Passport, PAN Card, Driving Licence, Aadhar card or Voter identity to establish proof of identity. In fact, the RBI has even done away with the requirement for a new customer to be introduced by an existing customer to open a bank account,” he said.
“Proof of identity is no longer an issue. People are having issues in establishing address proof,” he added.
The General Manager of Canara Bank, Coimbatore Circle U. Ramesh Kumar said: ‘This is the plight of not only the migrant workers, but many others too.’
Citing an example, he said: “Take a bank official – He/ she is posted at different locations once every three years. The address on his driving licence might not be the same as in his bank pass book, his voter ID might have a different address and so on. There is therefore a need for a public domain for addressing such issues,” he said, adding “I should admit that there is lot of scope for improvement in these areas.”
Among the many suggestions put forth, was one that called for having the KYC (Know Your Customer) application in the local language.