human interaction between bank personnel and their customers – now their customers are faceless telephones and mobile calls and clicks of the mouse! now it is not just borrowers who choose the bank which offers a competitive price but even depositors who call for tenders for placing term deposits! we have indeed come a long way. in the area of foreign exchange, almost all needs of foreign exchange can be met by banks, without requiring rbi ’ s approval. in fact now that we are so liberal we find very few takers. but we at rbi are constantly reviewing the quality of service, rendered by banks in order to bring about more improvements. therefore, to address the issue of banking services to the common man in particular, rbi recently appointed a committee, styled as committee for procedures and performance audit of public services ( cppaps ) under the chairmanship of shri s. s. tarapore, a former deputy governor of rbi – some of you might be well aware of his contribution in the field of banking and finance in india, especially his contribution as chairman of the committee on capital account convertibility – which till date remains a bible for capital account convertibility. the committee observed that there is a wide gap between the intent with which policies are formulated and the procedures followed by banks which totally derail the intent of the policy. this committee was unique in many ways. first, it focussed solely on the services rendered by banks to the common man. secondly, in its evaluation of services it started from the customer - end. the committee undertook incognito visits to bank branches including rbi ’ s offices for a first hand experience of difficulties faced by the public at large. thirdly, it observed that issuance of instructions by banks to its branches and their implementation at the grassroots level were two different things. the rbi has initiated action on the basis of the recommendations of the committee. to illustrate, let me mention a few of them : • let me begin with the rbi itself. the reserve bank has introduced a standardised application form for government of india savings bonds popularly known as rbi bonds. the application form also includes rights and responsibilities of applicants. it clearly indicates within how much time customer should expect the bond to be delivered to him and also to whom one should approach if appropriate service is not provided. • the reserve bank has introduced oltas to render more efficient tax collection. • banks have been advised to review their existing policies and procedures with regard to delivering of cheque book over the counters,

all a customer can expect from his bank. it also indicates the responsibilities of banks while giving different kinds of banking services. iba has further come out with a model deposit policy as each bank is adopting its own policy. the purpose of the policy is that banks should deliver to depositors what they had promised at the time of taking deposit. it is after all depositors ’ money that banks primarily use for lending and further their banking activity. therefore, in the real sense it is the depositor who is the true and real owner of the bank rather than the shareholder. any customer of a bank whose grievance with reference to deficiency in banking service is not addressed to his / her satisfaction by the bank can approach the banking ombudsman within a period of two months. the deficiencies that are covered include a variety of banking services, such as, nonpayment / inordinate delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills, non - issue of drafts to customers, non - adherence to prescribed working hours by branches etc. banking ombudsman functions as an arbitrator in respect of any dispute with mutual consent of both the parties provided that the value of the claim in such dispute does not exceed rupees ten lakh. banking ombudsmen have been appointed at 15 centres covering all states and union territories in india. there are equally important issues that most of us are concerned with which, while the regulator tries to address, we, as citizens, also should be aware of our own rights in the matters, such as : ( i ) intrusion of privacy. ( ii ) anti - tying. ( iii ) collection of unnecessary information for commercial reasons. ( iv ) negligence with reference to customer data. ( v ) credit card charges. ( vi ) changes of interest rates and charges and fine print. ( vii ) death of depositor. ( viii ) appointment of recovery agents who are questionable practitioners. the lions club has been involved in many social projects and today in arranging this talk it has helped in spreading the awareness of rights and responsibilities of a bank customer. let me end by saying that the reserve bank will continue to strive in its efforts to get banks to provide efficient and quality customer services and would welcome any suggestions for improvement.