SBI tells customers: Don’t have to visit branches to update KYC

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SBI news today: Within hours of Money9 reporting on April 30 on how State Bank of India is directing some customers to visit their branches to submit KYC details amid the COVID-19 surge and threatening them with closure of accounts if they don’t comply, the bank authorities hurriedly issued a direction to its employees not to ask any customer to visit any branch.

In a one-page letter addressed to the chief general managers of all circles, the bank has said that customers who have failed to submit KYC documents so far should do so by post and email.

The communication was signed by the chief general manager (retail and digital banking) on April 30.

No visit to branch

“In no case the customer should be asked personally to visit the branch for KYC updation,” the letter said.

It also instructed the CGMs of all the circles that partial freezing of CIFs due for KYC updation is not done upto May 31, 2021.

CIF or customer information file contains banking information of an account holder in a digital format. In other words, it means that customers were given one more month to send hard copies of KYC documents through postal/courier services and email.

Immediate effect

“These instructions are applicable with immediate effect,” said the letter and directed the CGMs to inform all the employees of the bank forthwith.

On April 30, Money9 reported on how SBI employees were telephoning some customers to visit the branch with hard copies of KYC even in the midst of the dance of the killer virus.

Some customers even took to the social media to vent their frustration at the attitude of the bank that was threatening closure of savings and PPF accounts if they failed to comply within a week.

SBI had set February 28, 2020 as the last date for submission of KYC documents for its customers.

Managers of SBI branches in Kolkata said that while most of the customers have complied with the KYC requirements, a minority share are yet to do so.

The insistence of the bank for its customers to visit the branch in an age of digital banking was in sharp contrast to its constant campaign to ask its customers to stay at home and avail of the services through its YONO mobile banking app.

It was all the more ironic since SBI recently launched a video KYC-based account opening feature on YONO app. The bank introduced this latest feature to help customers open an account without having to visit the bank branch considering the current pandemic situation.

Stay safe

“Stay safe at home, we are there to serve you. SBI provides you a contactless service that will help you with your urgent banking needs. Call our toll free number 1800112211 or 1800 425 3800,” the bank twitted from its official handle on April 30.

“We are telephoning only those customers who have old accounts and have not submitted their KYC documents. We are asking them to come with KYC documents, preferably PAN and Aadhaar cards,” a manager of a branch of State bank of India in south Kolkata had said on the morning of April 30.