RBI has extended the deadline for banks to renew the agreement for lockers with customers till 31 December 2023. Earlier, the locker holders had to renew the agreement before January 1, 2023.
Bank Locker Rule: RBI has given great relief to the customers having lockers in the bank. RBI has extended the deadline for banks to renew the agreement for lockers with customers till 31 December 2023. Earlier, the locker holders had to renew the agreement before January 1, 2023. Now RBI has decided to extend its term. Now customers along with banks can also renew the locker agreement till 31st December.
However, the Reserve Bank has set the steps for this. Banks will have to enter into a new agreement with at least 50% of their total customers by June 30. While it will be necessary to make an agreement with 75% by 30 September. By December 31, 2023, this agreement will have to be done with all the customers. RBI has shared this information on its Twitter handle.
RBI extends time for renewal of agreements for existing Safe Deposit Locker/Safe Custody Article Facility Provided by Bankshttps://t.co/wWPKKjBKCB
— ReserveBankOfIndia (@RBI) January 23, 2023
Locker holders were having trouble
Due to non-availability of stamp paper in many areas, customers were not able to renew the agreement. In many cases, the banks themselves were not able to give this information to their customers. In many cases, banks had also talked about freezing the lockers due to lack of new agreement. But now everyone has got relief. Now banks and customers have time till 31 December 2023.
Gave this advice to banks
The Reserve Bank of India has asked the banks to speed up the work of new agreements with the customers and also help the customers. In August 2021, the Reserve Bank issued a circular and made new rules regarding the locker. In which many things of the interest of customers and banks were added. Such as model agreement, quality and standard of locker, locker rent, transparency in locker allotment, accurate identification of customers.
What is the new locker agreement?
RBI had issued the guideline on 8 August 2022. According to which, if there is damage to the goods of the customer, then it will be the responsibility of the banks. Along with this, the customers were asked to sign the bank locker agreement by December 31, whose deadline has been extended to December 31, 2023. Along with this, customers will have to be informed about the change in locker rules through SMS and other means.
Under the new rule, if there is any loss, then this responsibility will be directly of the bank and it will have to pay compensation. If the loss is due to the fraud of the bank employee, then 100 times the rent of the locker will have to be paid to the bank. However, if the locker is affected by natural calamity or otherwise, the bank will not be liable to pay compensation.
If the customer taking the locker facility dies, then as per the new agreement, the nominee will get the locker facility. If he wants to keep this locker forward then he will have to contact the bank and if he wants to remove it then he will be the claimant.
