LETTER
Sir, Contents of this letter, if read casually, appear to be a very small issue, but imagine the plight of the legal heirs if the claim has to be made without nomination by approaching the concerned Government offices, which frustrate the general public for one reason or the other.
A recent instance of a close relative of claiming an amount from the SB account of the deceased prompted me to write this letter. My uncle expired last month due to old age.
He had all his accounts and transactions in a nationalised bank. His family members approached his bank to claim the deposits and contents of the locker.Since my uncle had nominated his term deposits,
which were renewed periodically, there was no issue in settling the amounts held in the deposits. However the problem started in his SB account and locker account which were opened more than four decades ago. Since the present AOF for SB, locker and term deposits has a provision to appoint or reject nomination/s, the claims are being settled without any legal hurdles.
Banker takes care of KYC of legal heir/s and transfers the amount to them which is the easiest procedure for both banker and depositor.
You can imagine the position if there is no nomination in old accounts; and hence, I wish to explain the importance of registering nomination particularly in old accounts in banks (namely SB and locker) to avoid problems to their legal heir/s.
Customers need to obtain acknowledgement for having registered their nomination. Issuing signed acknowledgement, with serial number, is also mandatory for the bank. The RBI should step in to educate customers.
K Ravi, E-237, GGP Colony, Bhubaneswar-751025. Mob: 9437616497