Hyderabad: Many people are receiving messages at ATMs that their debit cards are blocked and that they need to visit a nearest branch to update their personal details to get their cards unblocked.
Following Reserve Bank of India guidelines, banks are concentrating on updating their customer information database through Know Your Customer forms.
All India Bank Employees’ Association secretary for Telangana M.S. Kumar, said that the RBI had issued guidelines on KYC last year to curb misuses by criminals and cyber fraudsters.
“All banks across the country have geared up for the KYC process from July 2016. Bankers are sending SMS’ to the registered mobile numbers of customers and blocking their cards for not responding on the matter,” he said.
Besides KYC, banks are also blocking debit cards of those who frequently utilize their cards for online purchases, in order to protect the customer from cyber criminals.
“Whenever the bank authorities sniff any misuse of a card at other localities, states and countries, they block the card as a precautionary measure. Such customers can reactivate the cards in a couple of minutes by approaching customer care centres over phone,” a bank official said.
AIBEA Telangana state president B. Seetha Rambabu advised customers to respond immediate after they received messages from banks about KYC to avoid inconvenience.
“Most customers realise in the first week of every month while trying to withdraw their salaries from ATMs. The KYC process may take just 10 minutes but in cases of bank holidays, it may take one or two days for the customer to withdraw money.
“Soon after the submission of the KYC to bankers, the customers’ cards will be re-activated,” he said. With RBI imposing penalties on banks for violating KYC norms, all banks have geared up the process.
On July 27, the RBI imposed huge penalties on 13 banks including Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Punjab National Bank, RBL Bank, SBBJ, SBM 10, Syndicate Bank and UCO Bank.
