Bounced cheque lands bank in trouble
Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, July 13 (IANS) Thanks to a goof-up on their part that led to a cheque bouncing, officials of a nationalised bank are now forced to negotiate with a state utility to accept cheques from one of its customers.
P.N. Venkataraman, a customer of the State Bank of Mysore (SBM), recently discovered that a cheque for Rs.1,330 he had deposited with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) had bounced.
The reason SBM gave: "Customer signature not scanned".
Venkatraman was told the bank was shifting to a system under which signatures of account holders were scanned and uploaded, and that his signature had not been scanned.
"I have been operating the account with SBM's Shastri Nagar branch for the past 34 years. It is strange the bank bounced the cheque on a funny pretext," Venkataraman told IANS.
Fearing disconnection of power supply to his home, Venkataraman went to the TNEB office where he was told that as per the board rules, people whose cheques have been dishonoured are blacklisted and that no cheques accepted from them for the next three months.
Not only that, Venkataraman had to pay return charges and penalty for reconnection of electricity.
Venkataraman called SBM's zonal office to seek the assistant general manager's or his deputy's intervention in the matter.
He said a woman who declined to identify herself by name and merely said she was a chief manager, gave a patient hearing. Then, according to him, she hung up saying, "Sorry".
Venkataraman said he then called SBM's head office in Mysore to complain to the managing director, but to no avail.
Following this, Venkataraman sent a mail detailing his plight to Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Usha Thorat, with a copy marked to the SBM top brass.
Within minutes, he said, he started getting calls from the SBM managing director's office, the chief manager who had earlier refused to give her name and other officials who promised action.
"The TNEB still declines to accept the letter from SBM accepting its fault for wrongly dishonouring my cheque," Venkataraman said. "SBM's assistant general manager has assured me that the bank would sort out the issue by making the payment to the TNEB including the penalty."
When contacted, the bank's assistant general manager V.R. Kolandaivelu told IANS: "Efforts are being made so that the TNEB continues to accept cheques from him (Venkataraman)
Agreeing that it was a slip on the bank's part not to have scanned the customer's signature, he said a decision has been taken to consult the branch office concerned before dishonouring any cheque.
Dear friends
(Under copy to Banking Division, RBI Deputy Governor and MD of State Bank of Mysore and Consumers Association of India)
On behalf of our online discussion groups, we have taken up several common issues concerning the general public successfully. Many of them found their way to mainline media, leading to solutions. Very recently, you may remember that we took up the case of ATM Claims. When one of our members used HDFC ATM machine with Kotak Mahindra Bank ATM card, the cash was not dispensed, but his account was debited. The Banks told the customer that they would take 45 days to settle the claim. When we started debating the issue and brought this issue to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, she took up immediately and issued directions to all the Banks to settle the ATM claims within 13 days, failing which the concerned Banks would be penalised with penalty.
Now, we are taking up another serious issue where Bank customers in India are harassed with the indifference of Banks.
Return of cheques, when sufficient balance available in the a/c
One of our Members Mr Venkataraman and his family members are maintaining accounts with State Bank of Mysore, Chennai-Shastrinagar Branch for the past 35 years with deposits. Three days back, the Bank returned his Cheque for Rs.1330/- issued in favour of Electricity Board, inspite of his maintaining sufficient balance in his accounts. When he went to the Bank to update the pass book, he came to know of this fact. The reason stated by the Bank was that their branch was getting into 'core banking' and the signatures of the customers were not scanned. (What a silly reason to return Electricity Board cheque). Immediately,
Mr Venkataraman Mysore officials.rushed to the Electricity Board office and they informed him that he had to pay in future all the bills only in cash and he would be barred from paying the bills through cheque. Further, he had to pay return charges and penalty for reconnection of electricity. He spent nearly four hours in the Electricity Board Office running pillar to post and nothing could be done. Mr Venkatarman had to pay penalty due to the irresponsible, indifferent attitude and arrogance of State Bank of
Then he called up the Chennai Zonal office of the Bank to inform about this. The officials did not connect him to Asst. General Manager or Dy. General Manager of the Zone, under the pretext, they were in a 'meeting'. The office connected to a Chief Manager (lady), to whom he explained the problems. She was not sympathetic. excepting saying 'sorry'. She even refused to identify her name. She was not showing any interest to help the customer.
Without knowingwhat to do and under heavy tension, Mr Venkataraman, picked up the telephone number of State Bank of Mysore Head Office at Bangalore and called that number from his mobile and asked them to connect to Managing Director's Office. When he explained the situation to the Lady Secretary who was there, she asked him to contact Chennai Zonal Office and she too was not helpful and responsive. Mr Venkataramanhad to contact the Head Office, only because, their Chennai Zonal Office was not responsive to his complaint. Even the MD office did not empathise with the complainant.
At this stage, he called me and explained the whole issue. He was terribly under tension, as his reputation was lost due to the fault of the Bank. Adding insult, the Zonal Office and the MD Office of the Bank were not also responsive. At this stage, I suggested him to send a mail to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, who is taking care of customer grievances at RBI level for the entire country. The copies were marked to Zonal Office and MD office.
As any one can expect, within 10 minutes of receiving the copy of the mail, the same Secretary
of the MD office called Mr Venkataraman and apologized for her Banks action. The Chief Manager (lady) who was very casual while listening to his complaint earlier and who refused to divulge the name, contacted him over his mobile disclosing her identity. They all promised to look into this matter. It was because, the complaint was escalated to RBI level. Sadly, this is the ground reality. As of now, the Electricity Board will black list him and will demand penalty from Mr Venkataraman
for re-connecting electricity. All due to arrogance and irresponsible attitude of the Bank officials. On behalf of this Forum, I am now endorsing a copy to Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of RBI, Joint Secretary to the Banking Division of Govt. of India and also to the MD of the Bank. I am including Consumers Association of India in the loop. .
This instance is only tip of the iceberg. Everyday, hundreds of innocent customers are harassed like this by all the Banks. Electricity Board officials have also informed Mr Venkataraman that every day they face such problems, like Bankers returning the cheques inspite of sufficient funds. When a cheque for small amount gets returned, (even when there is sufficient funds in the Bank), it may cause greater damage to the reputation of the person. Smaller the amount, greater the reputation loss. Since many customers do not escalate the complaints, they suffer in silence due to the arrogance of such officials, including the higher offices. In this particular case, since the matter was taken up with RBI level, the Bank got panicky.
I request the readers to imagine themselves
in this position, where even the MD's Office does not recognise a serious complaint and remain casual like this, after causing heavy damage to your personal reputation. OUR REQUEST TO RBI - LEVY PENALTY TO THE BANKS
In the interest of millions of hapless and voiceless bank customers who suffer in silence at the hands of officials, RBI should consider levying huge penalty to the Banks, if they return cheques when there is sufficient funds in their account, particularly when the cheques are drawn in favour of Electricity Board, Telephones, Tax Authorities, etc.
The penalty to the Banks should also be of the order of 10 to 15 lakhs, particularly when the cheque is returned for small amounts. As said earlier, when small cheques are returned, the damage to the reputation is enormous. Hence, the need for heavy penalty to the Banks. A part of the penalty is to be recovered from the concerned erring officials, including the Managing Director of the Bank. (RBI has already issued directions in the case of ATM claims. If the claims are not settled within 13 days, RBI can impose penalty).
I request the members to share the views. While replying please endorse copies to all, so that Banking Division, RBI and the State Bank of Mysore MD and Consumers Association of India may also be kept in the loop of our discussions.
Let us hope this case study brings a good solution.
Srinivasan
Moderator and
Editor-in-Chief
PR-e-Sense
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