Bank Locker: New guidelines by RBI

Now banks cannot ignore the responsibility of their bank lockers and the items kept in them. If your valuables in the bank locker get stolen, catch fire, or get water damaged, the loss will be borne by the bank. Banks will have to compensate 100 times the bank locker rent. Before the new RBI guidelines, banks did not take onus for any potential mishap that could happen to your bank locker.

The RBI guidelines said, “It is the responsibility of the banks to ensure that all steps are taken for the safety of the premises in which the safes are kept. The incidents like fire, theft/burglary/robbery/, dacoity, building collapse in the bank premises should not be due to the bank’s own shortcomings, negligence, and any default/commission.

In such cases, the banks cannot deny liability to their customers for the loss of the contents of the locker. The liability of the banks shall be an amount equal to one hundred times the existing annual rent of the safe deposit locker.