With their arbitrary and autocratic way of fixing charges ICICI bank need the most amount of scrutiny and regulation and tight control over its functioning.Otherwise they will fleece the public, by luring with advertisements and making them as captive victims and hostages.The Government and Regulators should act fast.
Banks’ service charges to come under higher scrutiny
The Times of India Online
Printed from timesofindia.indiatimes.com > India Business
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Banks’ service charges to come under higher scrutiny
Anita Bhoir
[ Thursday, April 27, 2006 12:13:40 amTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
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MUMBAI: If you’ve been fretting about your bank making you pay for prepaying your home loan, take heart. Thanks to the
Reserve Bank of India, all service charges levied by banks will come under increased scrutiny.
A new working group, which is in the process of being formed, will specifically examine the ATM interchange fee, the processing fee charged by banks for various loan products and charges for the non-maintenance of quarterly balance.
RBI officials say though the committee will not prescribe any benchmark, banks will have to not just justify the charges that they levy, but also make it fully transparent.
"With this initiative, we hope that banks evolve a reasonable service charge on various banking products and display, and also update it on their website, branches and offices.
The details of various service charges will have to be put up in a format which is approved by the RBI and would also be placed on the RBI website, "said a senior RBI official.
In his policy statement on April 18, RBI governor YV Reddy had said the central bank had received several customer complaints about unreasonable and non-transparent service charges. He had also spelt out the formation of the working group in his policy statement.
The working group will comprise a nominee of the Indian Banks Association (IBA) and representatives of customers. IBA officials said so far they have not received any communication from RBI on the scope of what the committee will examine.
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Tyranny of ICICI Bank
ICICI Bank is charging 750 rupees for maintenance of savings bank accounts, per quarter, otherwise you maintain a minimum permanent balance of Rs.5000/- for ever. The practice of trading a fixed deposit of 5000 for a savings account is unfair. The hope to charge 2500 rupees in lieu of interest for 5000 rupees is ridiculous. To what extent can organizations go to intimidate public by making them captive customers first then taking advantage of them monetarily. Is it a monopolistic trade practice for which the policy making body of ICICI should be punished by law?. Does it come under fair business strategies or daylight robbery? However, cleverly you do robbery in a round about way still it is robbery. Is ICICI going to end up as a cleverly robbing bank? Has it become intoxicated with its apparent power over the individuals and becoming the orwellian organization. Especially ICICI bank is totally a clouded organization with the only bank public interface being the call center operators and no other level of authority is available for interaction, Why? Are they a secretive organization like Mafia. May be ICICI officials are very well aware that the organization itself was associated with MAFIOSA in the 1940s and they want to prove that their dream is to become mafia, if not orwellian. Will ICICI be the pioneer and usher in the era of mafiosa organizations dealing with public in the disguise of a financial institution?, Well, everything related to ICICI points to that possibility.
Their Reliance connection and the fame of Reliance in financial irregularities as a way of life all point to an attempt at authoritarian or totalitarian control over the public and the move has already reached perceptible levels.
Should people pay up the extortion silently the way they are unfortunately doing with mafia? Has the day come when we are going to regret our invention of organization. Will organizations grow into monsters, Will they use the individual’s money to trap him and suck him like the vampires.
Should the firing at the organization by the individuals and public interest groups continue for ever as the shaping up process. Otherwise it is not there in human ability to feel for others. And it has been blunted further by systematic bombarding of the brain with personal profitability.