Pune-based senior citizen Sharad Phadke’s fight has prompted a systemic change after his failed ATM transaction of Rs1, 000 was debited from his account but not restored for 65 days by Bank of India (BoI), despite repeated reminders.
Mr Phadke put up his case on the rtiindia.org website and a former bank official and RTI activist, JP Shah, also invoked the RTI Act on this issue with other banks like IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda.
Mr Phadke put up his case on the rtiindia.org website and a former bank official and RTI activist, JP Shah, also invoked the RTI Act on this issue with other banks like IDBI Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda.
After Mr Phadke’s story appeared on the Moneylife website on 4th May, managing editor Sucheta Dalal sent the article to the RBI, pointing to its contents as well as complaints of frequent breakdown in bank ATMs.
The RBI has now reduced the banks’ time frame from 12 days to nine days for depositing back the failed transaction amount to the customer’s account. A couple of other banks have made the procedure automatic so that they do not have to be burdened by the penalty.
While Mr Phadke continues his mission to find out what other banks are doing to avoid customer inconvenience in this regard, it’s a great story about how an individual’s dogged fight can discipline large organizations like banks.
