LocalCircles, a community social media platform, found that 56% of respondents to a survey it conducted said they had either closed bank lockers or were intending to downgrade the size soon.
The survey asked citizens, “With most banks having increased locker charges by 100-300% in the last 3 years and increasing KYC requirements significantly, how are you and your family coping with these changes?”
Surprisingly, out of 11,870 responses to this query, over one-third of respondents indicated that they had surrendered their bank locker. The data shows that while 36% of respondents have “shut the locker” in the last three years; 16% have been “paying the higher rate and complying with the KYC requirements but will soon shift to smaller lockers”; 4% of those surveyed indicated that they have “been paying the higher rate and complying with the KYC requirement but will soon shut the locker”; 36% of respondents said they “have been paying the new rate and complying with the KYC requirements and will continue to do so”; and another 8% of respondents are undecided on the issue.
In sum, troubled by the increased KYC requirements and a sizable increase in bank locker charges, 56% of locker holders have either already shut it or are planning to shut it down or shift to a smaller, more affordable locker soon.
The survey received over 23,000 responses from citizens located in 218 districts of India. 66% of respondents were men, while 34% of respondents were women. 46% of respondents were from Tier 1, 33% from Tier 2, and 21% were from Tier 3 & 4 districts. The survey was conducted via the LocalCircles platform, and all participants were validated citizens who had to be registered with LocalCircles to participate in this survey.
Revised locker agreements will have to be signed and submitted again by account holders to their bank branch if they have signed them on or before December 31, 2022, under the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) rules that will come into effect at the end of this calendar year.
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The new rules for bank safe deposit lockers, regarding banks’ responsibility and locker users, have been framed with several modifications by the RBI following the Supreme Court order in 2021 asking it to redefine the responsibilities and liabilities of banks and their locker users.
With many banks regularly calling locker holders to visit the branch with necessary KYC documents to sign paperwork and with many of them increasing locker charges in recent years, LocalCircles has been receiving posts and comments from locker holders indicating their grievances. In some cases, the locker holder is an NRI who is simply unable to sign the agreement by the deadline and has demanded that an electronic way be there for signing the new locker agreement.
As much as 8% of those surveyed said the bank directly debited locker rent from the secondary person authorised to operate the locker and have an account at the bank. Following up on some consumers’ complaints that their bank account has been debited for locker rent, though it was not in their name, the survey asked, “How has the bank charged the locker rent from you in the last 3 years?” The query received 11,493 responses, with the majority, or 88%, stating that “they directly debited it from the primary account owner’s bank account”; 4% stated that they “gave a cheque”; however, 8% of respondents indicated that the bank “directly debited it from the secondary person authorised to operate the locker and having an account at the bank.”