it may be like the right to education that we have made, the right to food that we are trying to make or the right to liberty that is often debated due to a variety of reasons. the point is that if the system is not ready for bis central bankers ’ speeches delivery of a particular service to all the people efficiently, making it a fundamental right would only result in all - round chaos. we are unable to implement the right to food or right to housing because we do not, perhaps, have the ability today. while i am happy that the aibea and its leaders are deliberating on this topic, let us also discuss about the modalities of making banking services available to all the people and assess if we are ready for the challenge. before going further, let me provide you some global perspective on the issue of banking as a right. under canadian law, everyone has the right to open a personal bank account. a bank cannot refuse to open a bank account for an individual merely because he / she is unemployed or does not make a minimum deposit or because he / she has previously been bankrupt – as long as they have the proper identification. of course, the opening of the account can be refused subject to certain conditions such as the account being likely to be used for illegal or fraudulent purposes, false identification given by the customer or the prospective customer suspected to have committed a crime related to any bank. likewise, in the uk, banks cannot refuse to open an ordinary deposit account except where it is not possible for the bank to identify the customer in a reliable manner or bank has reasons to suspect abuse or if it has any past experience of the customer materially breaching the contract entered into with the bank. eu is presently holding consultations on a document which, among others, seeks to ensure facilities of consumers ’ access to basic bank accounts, including a provision which allows switch over of the bank account providers, including on a cross - border mode. thus, across the globe, the provision of a basic banking account for the consumer is considered a right. as i have already mentioned, rbi has issued guidelines advising banks to offer a “ basic savings bank deposit account ” without any minimum balance and provision of basic services without any charges ( subject to limitations of operations ), thus, conferring a right to every citizen to have a bank account. the mandate is already there and it is for the bank employees to ensure that they open the accounts of everyone who approaches them and not tell them

k c chakrabarty : banking as a fundamental right of the people! address by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the 27th national conference of the aibea, kochi, 9 february 2013. * * * assistance provided by shri shailendra trivedi and smt. sushma vij in preparation of this address is gratefully acknowledged. com. rajen nagar, president and com. c h venkatachalam, general secretary of all india bank employees association ( aibea ), shri p. sainath, rural affairs editor, the hindu, prof. victor louis anthuvan, other office bearers of the aibea, office bearers and delegates from other trade union bodies, guest delegates from abroad and dear friends. i am extremely happy to be here today in kochi in the “ god ’ s own country ” to address this gathering of fellow bankers at this national seminar organized as part of the 27th national conference of the aibea. the fact that the aibea is one of the oldest and widely respected associations of bank employees is made clear by the fact that deputy governor of rbi could not say no to a call from mr. venkatachalam, your general secretary. having said that, i would admit that i have come here with a vested interest. vested interest in the sense that the subject you have selected for this seminar is very close to my heart ; to the hearts of the senior management in the reserve bank of india. also, being in - charge of the administration and human resource in the reserve bank of india, which is the regulator of the entire banking system in india, we want a responsible and strong trade union system in the banks because we feel that strong trade unions are a pre - condition for strong managements in the banks. i will come back to this issue a little later. it is, indeed, very heartening to note that the aibea has organized this conference on the theme “ meeting the challenges of the decade ”. in fact, this could very well have been titled “ meeting the challenges of the century ”. the banking system is unlikely to face the kind of challenges that it has been facing for the last 4 – 5 years. the challenges for the banking and financial sector are, indeed, gargantuan as is revealed by a recent survey conducted by research firm strategyone, across the globe. the interview based survey involving some