http://www.financialexpress.com/news/rbi-slams-discrimination-in-bank-rates/999253/0
Reserve Bank (RBI) deputy governor K C Chakrabarty today berated banks' tendency to offer better interest rates to high-value deposits.
"I don't understand why banks treat poor customers badly by offering lower rates on their deposits and reward the rich with higher prices. I am not saying both should be at par, but the prevailing different rates are bit too high.
"We at RBI would want banks to offer more or less similar rates to all depositors, although a reasonable difference is fine," the seniormost deputy governor told a gathering at the MR Pai memorial award function.
Referring to the minimum balance requirement for savings accounts which currently varies from Rs 500 to 50,000 for a quarter, and also the varying penalties for not maintaining the required balance, Chakrabarty said, "In fact banks are charging this fee without giving any service to the customer."
Therefore, he said, RBI has made it mandatory for banks not to turn down anyone who wants to open a basic bank account, if he/she can provide the KYC documents. On the service charges which banks make customers pay, Chakrabarty (who looks after customer service and banking operations at RBI among other things) said these charges are in fact "survival charges and not service charges".
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