RBI directs bank branches to comply with PPO order

The Reserve Bank has asked bank branches to record pension payment order (PPO) number in the passbooks of pensioners to avoid any hassle in case the PPO is lost.
The Finance Ministry's Central Pension Accounting Office in September 2014 had issued a memorandum asking Centralised Pension Processing Centres (CPPCs) and government business departments to instruct their bank branches with pension system to record PPO numbers in all passbooks of pensioners or family pensioners issued by them.
This was done to alleviate the difficulties reported by pensioners or their family pensioners to get duplicate PPO, RBI said in a notification today.

"However, it has been noticed that a few agency banks have not yet implemented the instructions in all their branches. Accordingly all agency banks are therefore advised to record the PPO numbers on the passbook of pensioners/family pensioners," RBI said.
The ministry had been receiving various applications from central civil pensioners and family pensioners as well as registered welfare organisation related to pension problems.
Pensioners/dependents faced problems related with getting duplicate PPO in case original one is lost, commencement of family pension to spouse or dependent children after death of pensioner and transfer of pension account from one bank/branch to another.

In a separate notification, RBI has asked the state level bankers' committee (SLBC) convener banks to identify unbanked rural centres in villages with population over 5,000 so as to align them with Core Banking Solution (CBS).
Under CBS, customers can operate their accounts and avail banking services from any branch of the bank on CBS network.