May the Bank be with You

The RBI directive to kill fees for inter-bank ATM usage is a good example of
the need for regulation. On their own, private players rarely work together for
the greater common good of the customer, even when that may lead to their own
benefit.

Irrationally, banks are bent upon creating their own branded ATM networks as
their differentiator. And on discouraging ATM access by customers of other
banks. Even though common, shared facilities would reduce costs and increase
usage. And it would help them draw in customers of other banks, with offers and
targeted ads.

Talk about inconsistent charges and unnecessary costs. HDFC Bank charges me
annual fees for debit card and bill payment (free for most banks). I asked ICICI
Bank for one consolidated statement: they send me 11 envelopes by courier after
two weeks, and I didnt finally get the statement I needed for income tax
support. Amex refuses to send or receive email, inundating me with paper for
every communicationa dubious privilege reserved for premium card holders.

Now what if banks were to come together, and take a few customer-friendly
steps that would improve and standardize their interface with customers?

Heres what they could standardize, for a start:

Prasanto K Roy pkr@cybermedia.co.in

The ATM interfaceat least the two basics: balance checking, and cash
withdrawal. Make it consistent, and speed it up. Knock off stupid questions like
savings or current account?

Mobile SMS alerts, to be on by default for all transactions over Rs 1,000.
Simple, clear format with balance.

SMS-based mobile bankingtwo standard basic commands: balance and
transactions. With the confusing range of shortcodes and SMS keywords, people
dont use mobile banking. I can barely remember them for two banks.

Website interface basicsICICI Bank loves to throw you out of a site if you
double click or press back. HDFC doesnt let you use login names, and forces you
to keep changing passwords, so most users tend to write them down somewhere,
defeating the purpose.

Money transferthe new NEFT system has made fund transfers more complicated.
Some banks such as SCB insist on branch level details: address, IFSC, and MICR
code. Why should I have to know so many branch details to transfer money
electronically, when I dont need those details for a physical cheque? (And they
could work out a quicker system. Why should I wait two working days for an
inter-bank electronic transferthe same as a physical cheque?)

And finally, few customers know what service levels to expect: time cycles,
charges, liabilities for credit card misuse, or phishing attacks, etc.

A common, brief customer service-level agreement would be a great achievement
of such a hypothetical inter-bank committee.