Banking facilities have remarkably improved over a last few years. Banks have upgraded their technologies. It could have been just daydreaming till few years ago to expect that your cheque is cleared by the drawee bank on receipt of electronic image of the cheque. Today this is possible through Cheque Truncation System (CTS). People are using internet banking route for booking tickets, paying bills and transferring money to their friends and relatives. Mobile Banking is the latest development. Using banking services has become faster and more convenient. But are banks treating their customers any better? Responses can be diverse. Customers of banks who have been victims of online frauds are unlikely to be impressed with the efforts made by banks to resolve their problems. But this might change soon. Although unwillingly, banks will have to service you better.

Here's why...
In the current system, a bank is not held responsible for any unauthorised transaction carried out in your account through e-platform. Usually, the agreement that governs such matters is so much biased in favour of banks that the bank won’t be responsible even if the unauthorised transactions are perpetrated by their own employees. Rarely banks have seen standing by their customers and usually wash their hands of the responsibility. On the contrary, there have been instances where the customers were accused of carrying out such frauds themselves. Banking agreements are phrased in such a way that they provide no protection to customers. However, as per the revised code of Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI), customers will be empowered to get protection against online frauds.

What will change now?
The new code aims at protecting the interest of customers. As per the revised code, if the customer suffers a financial loss due to fraudulent online transactions performed on his account, the bank will have to bear the loss. This rule is applicable in all cases where the security of internet banking is not breached due to negligence of the customer. The responsibility of establishing that the customer was at fault while using systems would be solely on the bank. This provision offers customers indemnity if they are defrauded.

Moreover, few more practices will change now with the revised rules coming into force this month. At present, some banks cross-sell (i.e. selling another product to customers buying a particular product) and sometimes force customers to buy third party products along with the product which customer is willing to buy. The best example is home loans. While you buy home loans you are often told by the bank that you must buy insurance offered by them. Revised code makes it mandatory to banks not to have any such compulsion on their customers.

PersonalFN View:
PersonalFN believes that revised code introduced by BCSBI would help keep a check on malpractices followed by banks. Banks have been avoiding their responsibilities by including clauses that would favour only them. Since it was done unanimously by all banks, customers had no option but to comply with the terms and conditions given in the banking agreement. But with the revision in banking code, customers will have some basic rights now. PersonalFN also believes that there is a huge potential for penetration of internet banking. If customers are ensured that they won’t suffer any financial loss when they are not at any fault, more customers may start using internet banking as it is cheap, convenient and faster. At the same time, as responsible customers, you should make sure that you don’t compromise on any security standard and follow instructions which are expected to make internet banking safer.

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Comments
johnk237@aol.com Feb 22, 2014 Hello! interesting site! I'm really like it! Very, very  good!
pankajsahni1990@gmail.com Jan 12, 2014 Dear Sir, This article was very useful and informatics thanks! with regards,

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