Bank New Rule: According to the current rule, only one person can be made a nominee for a bank account, but after a large number of deaths during Covid, thousands of such legal disputes have come before the banks in which many people have claimed a single bank account. After that it was felt necessary that the account holder should be given more rights.
Bank New Rule: Now instead of one person, you can make four people a nominee in your bank account. There is a provision for this in the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024 passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. Because of this, customers have been given the right to make four people nominees not only in the bank account, but also for the lockers kept in the banks or other banking services.
Introducing the bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that its objective is to strengthen governance in the banking system of the country and provide better service to the general customers. The bill also provides for giving more rights to the management of banks. For example, banks will now be able to decide the fees of their auditors etc. at their own level.
The Finance Minister had announced the introduction of this bill in his budget speech in July 2024. Through this, the government has simultaneously amended several provisions of the RBI Act, 1934, Banking Regulation Act, 1949, SBI Act, 1955, Banking Companies Act, 1970-1980.
According to the current rule, only one person can be made a nominee for bank accounts, but after a large number of deaths during Kovid, thousands of such legal disputes have come before the banks, in which many people claimed a bank account. After that it was felt necessary that the account holder should be given more rights to distribute the money deposited in the account among his loved ones at his will.
The bank account holder can decide how much share will be given to the people nominated by him. This will make the work of distribution of money deposited in the bank account more easy.
Through the amendment, the government has also cleared the way for some important changes regarding the management of the cooperative banks of the country. The tenure of directors in cooperative banks has been increased from eight years to 10 years. The directors of central cooperative banks have been allowed to become members of the board of directors of state cooperative banks.
The government says that this decision will enable better coordination between the central and state cooperative banks. Another important change has been made for banks that the time for calculating their cash reserve has been changed. Till now, banks had to give the calculation of their cash reserve on the Saturday of the second week. Now this calculation will be done every month from the first to the 15th and from the 16th to the last day of the month.
In response to the discussion on the bill, Sitharaman admitted that cyber fraud is a serious challenge. To curb this, there is a preparation to take more stringent steps at the government level. When some opposition MPs described the country’s current banking system as weak, Sitharaman said that the position of Indian banks is very strong and they are benefiting the country’s economy a lot. Public sector banks are being managed in a very professional manner and every Indian should be proud of these banks.
