Mallika Dureja
RBI: can now sign a new agreement to use a bank locker until December 31, 2023. This is because the Reserve Bank of India pushed back the deadline to the end of this year because banks didn’t sign a new agreement with their customers by January 1, 2023.
“RBI has found out that a lot of customers haven’t signed the revised agreement yet. Many times, the banks haven’t told their customers that they need to do something before the deadline. So, the deadline for banks to renew agreements for existing safe deposit lockers has been pushed back to December 31, 2023, with interim goals of 50% by June 30, 2023, and 75% by September 30, 2023, according to an RBI circular.
If locker operations have been frozen because an agreement has not been carried out, they need to be unfrozen right away. “Further, banks have been told to make the arrangements needed to make the revised agreements easier to carry out, such as making sure stamp papers are available,” said RBI.
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The new rules went into effect for new customers in January 2022 and for people who were already customers in January 2023. The new locker agreement says that the new agreement can’t have any clauses that are unfair to the customers.
RBI sent out a notice on August 18, 2021 that said, “Banks must have an agreement with the Board for safe deposit lockers. To do this, banks could use the model locker agreement that will be made by IBA. This agreement must be in line with these updated instructions and the Supreme Court’s orders in this area.”
“Banks must make sure that their locker agreements don’t have any terms or conditions that are unfair. Also, the terms of the contract can’t be harder than what would be needed in normal business to protect the bank’s interests. By January 1, 2023, banks that already have locker customers must have renewed their locker agreements with those customers.”
One of the most important parts of the agreement says that if a bank is responsible for something like a fire, theft, burglary, robbery, building collapse, or fraud committed by a bank employee, they will have to pay an amount equal to 100 times the annual rent of the safe deposit box.
“It is the bank’s job to make sure that things like fire, theft, burglary, robbery, dacoity, and building collapse don’t happen on the bank’s property because of the bank’s own mistakes, lack of care, or intentional or unintentional actions. As banks can’t say they have no responsibility to their customers if the contents of a safe deposit box are lost, if the loss is caused by one of the things listed above or by fraud committed by an employee, the bank will have to pay an amount equal to one hundred times the annual rent of the safe deposit box.
RBI extends deadline for renewal of agreements for existing safe deposit lockers in a phased manner by 31st December 2023https://t.co/1cpICs94T7
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) January 23, 2023
Concerning the customer’s insurance of the locker’s contents, the agreement says that “banks shall make clear in their locker agreement that they do not keep a record of the locker’s contents or of any items taken out or put in by the customer, so they are not responsible for insuring the locker’s contents against any risk.” Banks aren’t allowed to offer any kind of insurance product to people who rent lockers from them, either directly or indirectly.
