Jul 10
29
NRI Banking and Indian Banks
The Indian Banking sector has loads of services for pulling foreign funds from loyal Indians who have added to the countries growth and foreign currency reserves on a very large scale.
There is something about India and being Indian that keeps all of us attached to the matra bhumi where ever we live. Even if an Indian enjoyed full rights of citizenship in a very developed country he would not be able to keep himself away from India and his relatives back home. Probably this is because of the sanskaar that are embedded in the DNA or something. There is a bond and longing for relatives and family in us Indians that keeps us rejoining ourselves to India. Apart from this which keeps the business society attached to the nation, there are several salaried class people who also form a very huge contributing sector for the nation.
Probably due to these factors the NRI banking sector has been ever thriving especially since the Indian government has started to count in this large community and provide it with benefits and facilities that pull in the resources of all these people.
Indian banks have improved to quite an extent in providing very good services for the NRI sector but there are a few problems that I have faced personally and think they should improve on that front. Banks in India might be having fantastic services but when it comes to NRI services they lack behind their foreign counterparts. HSBC and State Bank, for example, create so much trouble to just reactivate a simple Net Banking account that the customer would finally become frustrated. No service centers in the UAE are equipped to help customers even reset their password or TPIN to a simple extent. One would have to place a long distance call to India just to get that done. Another problem which I have experienced with HSBC is that they would send your new password by snail-mail and how painstaking would that be in today’s speedy world could be understood easily.
On the other hand Citibank, I have no reason to favor it, except for the convenience and ease of the services they provide in the UAE itself. The best of all is their phone banking and net banking services. CitiNRI services have always been very costly and have a lot of various kinds of fees many people would surely not prefer and I think they should work out on it as well.
There are several banks out there for providing NRI services but one should really do a little homework and not get lured by the salesman or sales ladies talks, as India has strict rules on banking. Always study the fee structure, ask for their terms and conditions booklet, look for reviews on the internet and ask relatives and friends about their experience. There is a lot of competition in the sector and that makes it more nicer for the customer while decision making tougher.
