I had an account no. 52210126600 in Connaught Place, Delhi Branch of Standard Chartered Bank(SCB) for more than 20 years. I am also a preferred customer of HDFC Bank as I find their service excellent.
I temporarily shifted to to Bangalore in 2008 and decided to retain about Rs 12000 in the Standard Chartered Bank Delhi account, which was above the minimum balance limit of Rs 10000.
To my surprise, I found in year 2011 that SCB deducted the entire amount, without any communication to me. Numerous email correspondence failed to give a proper response and Bank(after about 10 emails) confirmed that they have closed the account with NIL balance and have refused to refund my money.
As per RBI circular, RBI / 2008-09 / 138 DBOD.No.Leg. BC. 34 /09.07.005/2008-09 dated August 22, 2008, specifically issued on such non-operative accounts RBI has given clear instruction to all Banks in case they find the account to non-operative, they should make all attempts to locate the customer, including contacting their introducers or employers. In this instance Bank clearly had my permanent address and they never informed me about their wrong intentions till they deducted the entire amount as dormant charges.
This is clearly wrong act on behalf of the Bank. I am surprised that such Banks are allowed to operate in India and I am sure they would have similarly cheated thousands of unsuspecting customers in blatant violations of RBI circulars.
I had a similar account in State Bank of India . Swasthya Vihar Branch with ONLY Rs 1200 retained and once I came to know of this wrong act by SCB, I visited SBI branch to close that account. To my pleasant surprise, the officer of the Bank guided to to carry out a transaction on same day by withdrawing Rs 100 only and get the account revived with full interest for intervening period. Now thats called customer delight. And what should we call the act by Standard Chartered Bank? I have no words.
Do we really need Banks like SCB operating in India when our own Banks offer such pleasant and honest service? I wonder what type of people are recruited by SCB and what orientation are they given on honesty? I am sure that Standard Chartered Bank with such low ethics will have no future as an entity as Banking business operates purely on trust.