Special customers deserve fair treatment

Are visually impaired persons eligible for availing all banking facilities independently?

If one is a visually impaired or low vision person, chances are that most banks will not open his independent bank account. They will either insist that he should open a joint bank account with a sighted person or open a bank account with no cheques book facility or both.

Most of the time bankers hold even the most literate blind person at par with an illiterate person, which otherwise should have not been there. This attitude of the banking fraternity is in contravention to the standing instructions of the Reserve Bank of India and Indian Banks Association.

There are certain procedural guidelines advising banks that all banks must render the same services to a visually impaired person as it would to any other person without discrimination. Generally speaking, all banks must provide the same facilities to a visually impaired customer/prospective customer as it would to any other customer.

But at the same time the customers should be made aware of the risk involved in some of these facilities, which may be higher than that for a normal customer. There should be no hesitation on part of banks to extend additional facilities like reading and filling up of forms, slips, and cheques to such customers.

Banks cannot force a visually impaired customer to operate the bank account jointly with any person or in the presence of any person. However, on the request of visually impaired customers, banks have to allow him to appoint a person/persons as his power of attorney or mandate holder to operate his bank account.

However, the banks have to follow the same procedure for opening the account of a visually impaired person as it does for its other customers.

Facilities for withdrawal of cash as are provided to all customers regarding cash payments must be provided to visually impaired customers. In case a visually impaired customer makes cash withdrawals at the bank, then the payment must be made in the presence of another bank employee/officer.

The banks cannot deny cheque book facility to visually impaired people. However, cheque books can be issued only if the blind person can sign consistently. Even credit and debit cards cannot be denied to a visually impaired customer.