Right to Fair Treatment

Both the customer and the financial services provider have a right to be treated with courtesy. The customer should not be unfairly discriminated against on grounds such as gender, age, religion, caste and physical ability when offering and delivering financial products.

In pursuance of the above Right, Bank will –

• Promote good and fair Banking practices by setting minimum standards in all dealings with the customers;
• Promote a fair and equitable relationship between the Bank and the customer;
• Train Bank staff attending to the customers, adequately and appropriately;

Right to Transparency, Fair and Honest Dealing

The Bank should make every effort to ensure that the contracts or agreements it frames are transparent, easily understood by and well communicated to, the common person. The product’s price, the associated risks, the terms and conditions that govern use over the product’s life cycle and the responsibilities of the customer and financial service provider, should be clearly disclosed. The customer should not be subject to unfair business or marketing practices, coercive contractual terms or misleading representations. Over the course of their relationship, the financial services provider cannot threaten the customer with physical harm, exert undue influence, or engage in blatant harassment.

In pursuance of the above Right, the Bank will –

• Ensure complete transparency so that the customer can have a better understanding of what he or she can reasonably / fairly expect from the Bank;
• Ensure that the Bank’s dealings with the customer rest on ethical principles of equity, integrity and transparency
• Provide customers with clear information about its products and services, terms and conditions, and the interest rates / service charges in simple and easily understandable language, and with sufficient information so that the customer could be reasonably expected to make an appropriate and informed choice of product;

Right to Suitability

The products offered should be appropriate to the needs of the customer and based on an assessment of the customer’s financial circumstances and understanding.

In pursuance of the above Right, the Bank will –

• Inform the customer about his responsibility to promptly and honestly provide all relevant and reasonable information that is sought by Bank to enable them to determine the suitability of the product to the customer
• Endeavour to make sure that the product or service sold or offered is appropriate to the customer’s needs.

Right to Privacy

Customers’ personal information should be kept confidential unless they have offered specific consent to the financial services provider or such information is required to be provided under the law or it is provided for a mandated business purpose (for example, to credit information companies). The customer should be informed upfront about likely mandated business purposes. Customers have the right to protection from all kinds of communications, electronic or otherwise, which infringe upon their privacy.

In pursuance of the above Right, Bank will –

• Ensure such likely mandated disclosures be communicated immediately to the customer in writing
• Not use or share customer’s personal information for marketing purpose, unless the customer has specifically authorized it;

Right to Grievance Redress and Compensation

The customer has a right to hold the financial services provider accountable for the products offered and to have a clear and easy way to have any valid grievances redressed. The provider should also facilitate the redress of grievances stemming from its sale of third party products. The financial services provider must communicate its policy for compensating mistakes, lapses in conduct, as well as non-performance or delays in performance, whether caused by the provider or otherwise. The policy must lay out the rights and duties of the customer when such events occur.

In pursuance of the above Right, Bank will –

• deal sympathetically and expeditiously with all things that go wrong;
• correct mistakes promptly;
• cancel any charge that has been applied wrongly and by mistake;