How to get banking paperwork done if I am based abroad?

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Most of us will have a bank account from our young days which has gone dormant for some or the other reason. Some of us will not even remember how much amount we hold in that account. Since net-banking wasn’t available or popular back then, getting information linked to the account becomes next to impossible. More often than not you will no longer be using the registered phone number with the bank. To top it, if you have moved cities or countries, visiting the bank becomes a challenging task.

Money9 Helpline received the following query on a similar situation:

My friend lives in Kathmandu. She holds an old savings account with the SBI in Mumbai from her college days, which is dormant, and KYC not done. It has a moderate amount of money.

She has the old ATM card. Internet and phone banking are not activated. She holds no identity proof of India, nor can get any made due to lack of address proof in India.

The only solution the bank is giving is to visit the branch personally and withdraw cash to activate the account, after which they can activate internet banking. She wants to avoid making a trip, due to family commitments. Is there any legal way of doing this, by means of power of attorney or making an affidavit?

– Sapna Arora

Money9 approached Adhil Shetty, CEO and co-founder, Bankbazaar.com, for the response.

Shetty: A special power of attorney in favour of a family member or friend who can intercede on behalf of the depositor can help in this case. They can complete the formalities at the branch on behalf of the depositor and get the account activated. Once that is done, the depositor can enable internet banking and move the funds to another account via internet banking.

There are two things to keep in mind while making the power of attorney. The first is that it should be a recent Special Power of Attorney (SPA) giving very specific rights to the Agent. It would be advisable to check with the bank before making the SPA as several banks have their own format for SPA and may not accept the SPA if it is not as per their format. The second point to note is that the power of attorney has to be attested by the Indian Consulate in Nepal. Without the attestation, it would not be valid for use India. After it has been attested by the Indian Consulate/Embassy, it can be sent to India, where it may have to be registered at the sub-registrar’s office.

As this is cumbersome, you may want to first try submitting all the documents, ID proofs (duly attested at the consulate), any letters or print-out of prior email communication, etc., along with a request to activate the dormant account, via registered post to the home branch after informing them via email. If this does not work, you will have to go the SPA route.