Mumbai: Following the diktat from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) commercial banks have begun issuing passbooks and account statements to the customers every month without charging any fees. The banks earlier issued quarterly account statements.

This step is expected to increase the costs of operations of both private and foreign banks. Earlier, a customer wanting monthly account statements had to pay anywhere between Rs100 and Rs250.

According to industry estimates, the cost of a transaction at bank branches ranges from Rs40 to Rs55 and hence, the banks are not encouraging customers to go back to the passbook culture.

A senior private sector banker said the cost of sending one statement is Rs12-Rs15. If the banks have to send statements every month, the expenditure will increase three-fold to Rs154-Rs180 from the current Rs48-Rs60 per customer.

This would wipe out the gains on an account where the minimum balance of Rs5,000 is being maintained. Banks have a 3 per cent margin (Rs150) on every account with a minimum balance of Rs5,000. But this gain fades considering the facilities provided by banks.