Banks wash off hands of delayed, faulty mobile, email alerts

Banks may boast of providing 24X7 services through mobile and internet banking, but they have decided not to take the blame for any delay and errors in the mobile or e-mail alerts sent to their customers.

Ever since the Reserve Bank of India issued its operating guidelines regarding mobile banking transactions to the banks last year, almost all the banks in the country have started the service, as part of which customers also get alerts on their mobile phones for all important transactions.

Similarly, internet banking is also growing in leaps and bounds as it saves cost for the banks and also gives the customers anytime-banking service without going to the bank branches or even ATMs.

However, banks have now decided that the liability does not lie with them if the customers do not get the mobile or e-mail alerts on time, or if the alerts contain errors and lack accuracy, as they believe it could be due to fault at the end of the mobile, internet and third-party service providers.

As per new credit card terms and conditions, being effected by the country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank from October 5, the bank would not be liable for "non-delivery or delayed delivery of alerts, error, loss or distortion in transmission of alerts to the cardholders".

Similar terms are being implemented by many other banks as well, while some others have already such clauses in place.

"The cardholder acknowledges that the provision of the facility of receiving alerts on mobile phone number of e-mail, provided by the cardholder while applying for the credit card facility, is dependent on the infrastructure, connectivity and service providers engaged by ICICI Bank or otherwise," the new clause says.

"The cardholder accepts that timeliness, accuracy and readability of alerts sent by ICICI Bank will depend on factors affecting other service providers engaged by ICICI Bank or otherwise," it adds further.

Central bank RBI, in its latest annual report, said that the growth and penetration of conventional non-cash modes of payments continued to remain strong in 2008-09, while new modes of payments like mobile payment transactions also began.

"The rapid advancements in the field of IT have contributed to emergence of new products as well as methods of payment and settlement.

"Emergence of new modes of payments and increasing complexity of transactions, however, also pose challenges in terms of formulating appropriate regulatory and supervisory frameworks," RBI said.

"Rapid expansion in the use of mobile phones as a mode of communication has created new opportunities for banks to use this mode for banking transactions," RBI had said while issuing its mobile banking guidelines.