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Banks' meet on Jan 15 to discuss credit card norms

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Anita Bhoir Mumbai
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has called a meeting of commercial banks on January 15 to review the formulation of a regulatory mechanism for the use of credit cards. The Indian Banks' Association (IBA), the premier bankers' body, will also attend the meeting.
 
Concerned at the indiscriminate issuance of credit cards, the RBI on December 24 had urged the IBA and some large card issuing banks to evolve a code of conduct for card usage.
 
Subsequently, the IBA held a high-level meeting with bankers on January 10. The RBI is expected to take stock of the outcome of the discussion of banks with the IBA, said banking sources.
 
The IBA, at its January 10 meeting with banks, formed two sub-groups "" one to prepare the fair practice code for card issuers and the second to frame a code of conduct for direct sales agents (DSA), said a senior IBA official.
 
The sub-group preparing a code for card issuing banks will include members from HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.
 
The sub-group drafting a code of conduct for DSAs will include officials from Citibank, American Express, BoB Cards and ICICI Bank, said the IBA official.
 
The IBA, at its meeting, had advised banks to be transparent in terms of charges levied on customers and exercise restrain in sharing of customer information with other agencies, the official added.
 
The association has also asked banks to advise their customer grievance cell to give an upfront turnaround time to customers to solve their complaints.
 
The association has also advised banks against issuing unsolicited cards to customers, said the official.
 
It has also asked banks to initiate various customer education programmes to increase the safe usage of credit cards in the country, the official added.

 
 

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First Published: Jan 14 2005 | 12:00 AM IST

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