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COVID-19 infection has overwhelmed the country prompting lockdowns in a few states and imposition of mobility restrictions. Daily infections are nearing 4 lakh and the total number of active cases are close to 32 lakh. The healthcare infrastructure is bursting at the seams and even serious patients are being turned away by hospitals.

Against such a backdrop, State Bank of India, the country’s biggest bank, is threatening customers to close their accounts if they don’t turn up at the branch with KYC documents.

Digital banking?

In an age when digital banking is the norm, a few customers told Money9 that they got telephone calls from their respective branches of SBI, where the caller asked them to “visit the branch with hard copies of Aadhaar and PAN in a week, failing which the account will be closed”.

Some aggrieved customers have also gone on social media highlighting the stern message from the bank officials.

“It is not for the general public. We are telephoning only those customers who have old accounts and have not submitted their KYC documents. We are asking them to come with KYC documents, preferably PAN and Aadhaar cards,” said a manager of a branch of State Bank of India in south Kolkata.

Contactless banking

Ironically, SBI is also appealing to the general public to use their not to venture out of homes.

“Stay safe at home, we are there to serve you. SBI provides you a contactless service that will help you with your urgent banking needs. Call our toll free number 1800112211 or 1800 425 3800,” the bank twitted from its official handle on April 30.

And that is not an exception. The bank is sending out communication on the social media almost every day to caution the people about the perils of carefree movement.

Why not through YONO?

“The bank if promoting its Yono app bigtime. Even if we consider that the bank is in no mood to extend the long past deadline, it can ask for KYC documents to be scanned and sent through its app. Aadhaar cards can be validated online,” said investment expert Chandramohan Mukherjee.

“It’s cruel to suggest that accounts will be closed as a punitive measure in these times. One has EMIs on loans, insurance premia school fees and numerous important transactions linked to bank accounts,” added Mukherjee.

“As a part of corporate responsibility, SBI has said that it is picking up the bills of vaccination of its employees and their dependents. It is not appropriate for the bank to ask its customers to visit branches at this time,” remarked Nilanjan De, investment advisor.

SBI had set a deadline of February 28, 2020 as the last date for submitting KYC documents for its customers.

Though most of the customers submitted the documents, a minority of old account holders have not done it yet, admitted an SBI official.

It is all the more ironic that SBI has launched a video KYC-based account opening feature on its YONO mobile banking app. The bank introduced this latest feature to help customers open an account without having to visit the bank branch considering the current pandemic situation.