RBI asks banks to detail services charges, interest rates on websites

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to display all information regarding interest rates, service charges for credit cards and loan schemes among other things in a format that can be easily understood by customers, in order to make banking services more customer-friendly and transparent.

''We have devised a format for display of information which would enable the customer to obtain the desired information at a quick glance,'' RBI said in a notification.

The RBI wants banks to display locker charges, credit card fees, fixed and floating interest rate for housing loans for different maturities, personal loans, vehicle loans for new as well as old cars and education loans on their websites.

Banks would also be required to show interest rates for various fixed deposit schemes for residents as well as non-residents.

The RBI, however, said banks could modify the format to suit their requirements without impairing the basic structure or curtailing the scope of disclosures.

The RBI has set the vision to establish safe, secure, sound and efficient payment and settlement systems in the country. Existence of an efficient payment system is a pre-requisite for better development of economic activity in the country. Towards this endeavour, RBI has taken several measures to bring about changes in the service delivery levels, including the cost of services, over the years.

In order to ensure larger migration to using electronic payment products by customers, RBI took a major policy decision to waive the processing charges for all the electronic products. However, banks were permitted to have their policy on service charges. It was expected that this move of RBI would have a bearing on the banks policy on levying service charges. In addition, the charges levied by banks for various products were also compiled and displayed on the RBI's web-site so that such a move would force banks to change their approach on service charges.