Keep uniform charges for same services: RBI to banks

Says banks should not discriminate between their customers at home branch and non-home branches under the CBS platform

The Reserve Bank on Monday directed lenders not to discriminate against their customers and follow a uniform, fair and transparent pricing policy.

RBI said banks should not discriminate between their customers at a home branch and non-home branches under the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) platform.

"Accordingly, if a particular service is provided free at the home branch, the same should be available free at non-home branches also. There should be no discrimination as regards intersol charges between similar transactions done by customers at home branch and those done at non-home branches," RBI said in a directive.

Charges levied by banks on their customers for products and services are called intersol charges.

RBI said banks were seen to be discriminating against their own customers and providing services and products without any charge for the branch designated as 'home' or 'base' branch, while at non-home branches charges were levied for the same services and products.

It said intersol charges were not uniform across home and non-home branches and this practice by some banks was contrary to the spirit of RBI guidelines on reasonableness of bank charges.

"As intersol charges are charges levied by the bank to cover the cost of extending services to customers by using the CBS/internet/ intranet platform, the cost should be branch/ customer agnostic in-principle," it said. It is clarified that cash handling charges may not be included under intersol charges, it further said.