The concept of a single window service that came into existence in public sector banks on the lines of their private sector counterparts has led to blatant violation of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Clean Note Policy. This is because the same person deals with both the receipts and the payments at his/her counter and currency notes received by him/her for making deposits are simultaneously paid to the recipients, but without first subjecting them to 'checking' through note sorting machines, a mandatory requirement of the RBI.
At times the quality of the currency notes vended through the ATMs of some of these banks is not according to their laid-down guidelines. The usual plea of the banks is that their ATMs are served by outsourced agencies, which are no longer under their control. This does not augur well for banks in the era of highly competitive banking. Often, no security guard is stationed at the ATMs.
All is not well with the supposedly most innovative 24x7 service of these banks. One is often told about the non-availability of cash through the message, "Temporarily unable to dispense cash", on the screen only after he/she has completed the entire process for withdrawing money.
If a bank repeatedly defaults on service, its customers will surely migrate to convenient and caring banking zones.
S Kumar New Delhi
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