RBI streamlines norms for claims settlement related to deceased bank customers
On Friday, 26 September (PTI), Mumbai issued revised norms to settle the allegations about the deceased customers’ bank accounts and cabinets within a 15 -day time period and stipulated compensation to candidates for delays in the settlement.
Reviewed instructions aim to regulate different applications after banks in solving the allegations related to deceased customers. It also standardized the documents to provide improvement in the quality of customer service.
Central Banks, ‘India Reserve Bank (the resolution of the allegations of the deceased customers of banks) instructions, 2025’ revised instructions will be applied as quickly as possible, but will not be late than 31 March 2026, he said.
Instructions are related to the resolution of the demands in the deposit accounts of a deceased customer’s deposit accounts.
RBI said that a deposit account, where a deposit account is nominated or opened with the survival item of the account, will be considered as a valid discharge of the responsibility of a bank to pay the unpaid balance of the deposit (s) to the candidates/ survivors.
In cases where the accounts are without a candidate/survival item, the banks were asked to adopt a simplified procedure to solve the demands in cases where the total amount to be paid is less than the threshold limit.
Means the threshold limit La5 Lakh in case of a cooperative bank and La15 Lakh The higher limit that can be fixed by the bank, including another bank or a cooperative bank.
In cases where the amount is above the threshold limit, it may request additional documents such as bank successive certificate or legal varicose veins certificate.
The latest instructions of the RBI also foresee norms for solving the demands that do not fall under the simplified procedure.
It also details the norms to be monitored to solve demands in a case cabinet and the articles taken safely by a deceased customer.
RBI, on the time limit to solve the demands, a bank, a deceased customer’s deposit accounts, all necessary documents related to the request from the date of receipt of 15 calendar days, he said.
“If it is safe in custody in safe deposit cabinets/ articles, the bank will communicate with the plaintiff (s) to correct the date of making the inventory of the cabinet/ articles within 15 calendar days after receiving all the necessary documents.” He said.
RBI said that if any request for the deposit is not resolved within the prescribed time interval, the bank would transmit the reasons for this delay to the plaintiff.
“In addition, in the event of a delay attributed to the bank, compensation will be paid by the bank in the form of interest, which is not less than 4 percent per year in the amount of allowance due to the delay time.” He said.
For requests for safe deposit cabinet/ articles, the bank will be asked to pay compensation to the plaintiff. La5,000 for every day of the delay in cases where it is not connected to the timeline.
