Common number for multiple bank accounts

You may soon have a common number to operate multiple bank accounts, if a proposal mooted by the government is implemented by banks.

Taking further the concept of electronic banking, the union government has sounded out banks to work on the concept of one bank account for one person in the country.

Sources at the Indian Banks’ Association said that the government recently sent communication to the industry body to explore the prospects of one-person-one-account.

How it will evolve is still unclear. But one possibility to link all your bank accounts and provide you with a common account number. For this to happen, banks will have to link their networks or an agency will have to step in to undertake the task on behalf of the banks, bankers said.

The use of information technology in the banking industry is going to aid banks achieve the task.

Sanjay Sharma, chief executive of IDBI Intech, said the discussion on the concept is in the initial stage.

Bankers said this will require a seamless transaction platform. Indian banks are at different stages of rolling out core banking system and it will take a while to stabilise the operations. “We are not ready for the concept as yet,” said senior IT executive at a public sector bank.

For Indian customers, anywhere banking itself is a new concept with all banks still to implement core banking solutions. Core banking solutions have enabled account holders to access their accounts anywhere in the country, provided they are willing to pay a levy.

Besides, bankers said, there are different systems and process even within a bank and combining the processes of all banks in the country is not going to be an easy task. It is common experience that many accounts maintained by a person with the same bank are yet to be connected under one customer identity.

“While one could understand benefit of such proposal, we need thorough look at preparedness,” pointed out another bank executive.

Even in the case of the telecom sector, which is trying to implement number portability to enable customers to use the same number even if they shift to a different city or change their operator, the implementation is taking time.