New Delhi: Two leading foreign banks in India have been accused by the investigative arm of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission of making false promises to their credit card customers in violation of The Reserve Bank of India''s guidelines.

In its preliminary report, the director general of investigation and registration (DGIR) said that Citibank and HSBC had violated the Reserve Bank''s rules on timely despatch of bills with a view to causing a loss to its customers.

According to the DGIR both banks were allegedly delaying delivery of bills and realisation of cheques toward payment in order to charge increased interest rate, late fee and fines, etc.

The DGIR also said that the two banks have been conducting credit card business in the country through either independent direct sales agents (DSAs) or those who were working on commissions.

The report says these DSAs solicited business from the general public by conveying the impression that they were the direct agents of the bank, without disclosing their independent status leading customers and prospects to believe that the promises made by these agents were as good as those made by an officer of the bank.

It also said that the DSAs of these banks even used government or semi-government offices and premises for soliciting business and their sales promotion. According to the RBI''s licenses terms, these banks are supposed to carry out their banking activities only from their own branches and offices.