ICICI Bank freezes many NRI accounts for want of fresh documents

03 February 2007

The original documents kept at the bank's Mumbai office got damaged in July 2005 floods. The bank had asked customers to give fresh documents, including those for opening savings and current accounts, demat accounts for trading and investing, home loans and auto loans, and ICICI Direct online trading accounts.

Apart from NRI customers, the damage has also affected several account holders in India.

While ICICI Bank had given its customers in India time until December 25, 2006 for submitting the required documents, NRIs in the UAE were given a deadline of January 31, 2007 for submitting fresh documents.

"Several accounts of customers who have failed to meet the deadline have been deactivated," an official at the ICICI Representative Office in Dubai said.

"It will definitely affect our customers. At least that way we can expect them to quickly come and rectify the problem," he added.

The official, however, said that the accounts would be reopened after the documents were submitted.