BANKERS' FAIR PRACTICE CODE

PREFACE

• current, savings and all other deposit accounts
• pension, PPF accounts etc. operated as agents of RBI/Government
• collection and remittance services offered by the banks
• loans and overdrafts
• foreign-exchange services
• card products
• third party products offered through our network.
  
  About this Code
  
  1.2 As a voluntary Code, it promotes competition and encourages market forces to achieve higher operating standards for the benefit of customers. In the Code, 'you' denotes the customer and 'we' the bank, the customer deals with.
  
  The standards of the Code are covered by the four elements given under Key Commitments.
  
  Unless it says otherwise, all parts of this Code apply to all the products and services listed above, whether they are provided by branches across the counter, over the phone, by post, through interactive electronic devices, on the internet or by any other method.
  
  Commitments outlined in this Code are applicable under normal operating environment. In the event of force majeure, we may not be able to fulfill the commitments under this Code.
  
  This Code comes into effect from 1st June 2004.
  
  2. KEY COMMITMENTS
  
  Our key commitments to you
  
  We promise to:
  
  a) Act fairly and reasonably in all our dealings with you by:

• meeting the commitments and standards in this Code, for the products and services we offer, and in the procedures and practices our staff follow
• making sure our products and services meet relevant laws and regulations
• our dealings with you will rest on ethical principles of integrity and transparency.
  
  b) Help you to understand how our financial products and services work by:

• giving you information about them in plain Hindi and/or English and/or the local language
• explaining their financial implications and
• helping you choose the one that meets your needs.
  
  c) Deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong by:

• correcting mistakes quickly
• handling your complaints quickly
• telling you how to take your complaint forward if you are still not satisfied and
• reversing any bank charges that we apply due to our mistake.
  
  d) Publicise this Code, put it on our website and have copies available for you on request.
  
  3. INFORMATION
  
  Helping you to choose products and services, which meet your needs
  
  3.1 Before you become a customer, we will:

• give you clear information explaining the key features of the services and products you tell us you are interested in
• give you information on any type of account facility which we offer and may suit your needs
• tell you what information we need from you to prove your identity and address and to comply with legal and regulatory requirements, and" request for additional information about you and your family to build a database but such information can be furnished by you only if you wish and we will not compel you to give this information for opening your account.
  3.2 We will tell you if we offer products and services in more than one way [for example, through ATMs, on the internet, over the phone, in branches and so on] and tell you how to find out more about them.
  3.3 Once you have chosen an account or service, we will tell you how it works.
  3.4 When you open a single account or a joint account, we will give you information on your rights and responsibilities.
  3.5 We recommend that you avail nomination facility offered on all deposit accounts, articles in safe custody and safe deposit vaults.
  3.6 We will guide you how we will deal with deposits and other assets held with us in the name of a deceased person in the absence of nomination.
  
  4. INTEREST RATES
  4.1 You can find out about our interest rates by:
• looking at the notices in our branches
• phoning our branches or help-lines
• looking on our website; or
• asking our designated staff.
  
  4.2 When you become a customer, we will give you information on the interest rates which apply to your accounts, and when we will pay interest on your deposits or debit interest on your loan accounts. We will also tell you our website address, our help-line numbers and the other ways in which you can find out about changes in the interest rates.
  
  4.3 We will explain how we apply interest to your account.
  
  Changes in interest rates
  
  4.4 When we change the interest rates on our products, we will update the information on our telephone help-line and our website within three working days.
  
  Interest on savings accounts
  
  4.5 At the time of opening of the account, we will inform you of the rate at which interest is paid on your savings deposits [presently, it is regulated by Reserve Bank of India], how it is calculated and its periodicity.
  
  
  5 CHARGES
  5.1 When you become a customer, we will give you upfront details of any charges applicable to the products chosen by you.
  5.2 You can also find out about our charges by:
• asking our staff at the branch where you have your account
• phoning our help-line or
• looking on our website.
  5.3 If we increase any of these charges or introduce a new charge, it will be notified at least 15 days before the revised charges are levied / become due.
  5.4 We will tell you the charge for any other service or product before we provide that service or product, and at any time you ask.
  5.5 We will give you details of any charges we levy for using ATMs.
  
  6 TERMS AND CONDITIONS
  6.1 When you become a customer or accept a product for the first time, we will give you the relevant terms and conditions for the service you have asked us to provide.
  6.2 All written terms and conditions will be fair and will set out your rights and responsibilities clearly and in plain language. We will use legal or technical language only where necessary.
  Changes to Terms and Conditions
  6.3 When you become a customer, we will tell you how we will let you know / notify about changes to terms and conditions.
  6.4 Normally, changes [other than interest rates] will be made with prospective effect giving notice of at least 15 days. If the changes are to your disadvantage, you may close the account at any time up to 30 days from the date of the notice without having to pay any extra charges or interest for doing this.
  6.5 Changes in the interest rates on our products [deposits and advances] from time to time will be notified as per the bank's policy/practice.
  
  7 ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
  7.1 We will make sure that all advertising and promotional material is clear, fair, reasonable and not misleading.
  7.2 We will seek your specific consent for giving details of your name and address to any third party, including other entities in our group, for marketing purposes.
  7.3 We would like to provide you with the entire range of financial services products, some of which are our own products while some others are the products of our group/associate/entities or companies with whom we have tie-up arrangements. We will however tell you about our associate / group entities or companies having business tie-up arrangements with us and if you so desire, direct their staff / agents for marketing their products.
  
  
  8 ACCOUNT OPERATIONS
  Statements
  8.1 To help you manage your account and check entries on it, we will give you account statements at regular intervals unless this is not appropriate for the type of account you have [like an account where you have a passbook].
  8.2 We will normally provide you with a statement periodically as per our policy. You can ask us to provide you with account statements more often than is normally available on your type of account, but there may be a charge for this service.
  8.3 You will also be able to see your last few transactions on ATM or through your internet account wherever such facilities are available with us.
  8.4 We will also send you statement of accounts by e-mail, if you so desire, provided we have such facility with us.
  
  Clearing Cycle / Collection Services
  8.5 We will tell you about the clearing cycle, including when you can withdraw money after lodging collection instruments and when you will start to earn interest.
  
  8.6 We will give immediate credit to your account for outstation cheques lodged by you and will allow you to draw against such instrument[s] under collection as per prevailing RBI guidelines. [Presently, instruments upto Rs.15,000/- tendered by customers operating accounts satisfactorily.]
  8.7 We will pay interest on funds involved if collection is delayed beyond the normal period as stipulated by RBI.
  Cash Transactions
  8.8 You should count notes and ensure correctness before leaving the cash counter.
  8.9 Avoid writing anything on the face of the notes and co-operate with us by remitting notes in unstapled / unstitched conditions as required under RBI's Clean Note Policy.
  Direct debits and standing instructions
  8.10 We will act upon mandates given by you for direct debits [say ECS] and other standing instructions.
  
  Cheques issued by you
  8.11 We will keep original cheques paid from your account or copies, for such periods as required by law.
  8.12 If, within a reasonable period after the entry has been made on your statement, there is a dispute about a cheque paid from your account, we will give you the cheque or a copy as evidence.
  8.13 We will tell you how we will deal with unpaid cheques and out-of-date [stale] cheques.
  Accounts operated/services rendered as agents of Government and RBI
  8.14 While opening PPF / Pension Accounts or investing in Relief / RBI Bonds, we will tell you about operational guidelines for such accounts / transactions.
  Foreign exchange services offered through authorized offices
  8.15 We will provide you details of the service, exchange rates and charges that apply to foreign exchange transactions, which you are about to make. If this is not possible, we will tell you how these will be worked out.
  8.16 If you want to transfer money abroad, we will tell you how to do this and will give you:
• a description of the services and how to use them
• details of when the money you have sent abroad should get there and the reasons for possible delays
• the exchange rate applied when converting to the foreign currency; and
• details of any commission or charges which you will have to pay.
  8.17 If money is transferred to your bank account from abroad, we will tell you the original amount received and charges, if any. If the sender has paid all charges, we will not deduct charges when we pay the money into your account.
  8.18 We will guide you about regulatory requirements or conditions relating to foreign exchange services offered by us as and when required by you.
  Protecting your account
  8.19 We will tell you what you can do to help protect your accounts. You can find out more about this under "What You Can Do to Protect Your Accounts".
  8.20 In the event your cheque book, passbook or ATM/Debit card has been lost or stolen, or that someone else knows your PIN or other security information, we will, on your notifying us, take immediate steps to try to prevent these from being misused.

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