[Resolved]  Standard Chartered Bank — NRE account opening - misinformation and unprofessionalism by the NRI banking team

Address:

Kolkata, West Bengal

Dear Sir/Madam, My wife, Ms. Priyanka Roy holds a salary account with Standard Chartered (SC). She was being told by Mr. Kishore Vijayakumar that there would be zero balance NRE/NRO account in case she opens an account with me and this would be based on her salary account. This was the sole reason my wife opened a salary account with SC. It was also being emphasised that once the privilege of "zero balance" is given the same will be renewed/continued from the next year onwards. He and Ms. Mousumi Mamtaz made us to fill up all the forms to open a NRE account and took all the documents (my overseas residential proof, credit card statement and banking details) from us and lodged an application to open an account. On 23rd Sep Ms. Mousumi called my wife and confirmed that the account has been processed and someone named by Mr Saumendranath Saha from the NRI banking division wants to formally meet me before opening the account and handing over all the account documents.When I met Mr. Saha of NRI division on 24th Sep'13, I realised that it was a wrong and misleading information that was given by Mr. Kishore and Ms. Mousumi Mamtaz. Mr. Saha took time to clarify all the terms and conditions which I appreciate. But those conditions did not seem interesting enough for me to open a 2nd NRE/NRO account with SC (since I already have one with another bank). To clarify his stand Mr. Kishore called me on 25th Sep. He was quick enough to blame Mr. Saha saying that he could not clarify the actual terms and conditions properly. The height o[censored]nprofessionalism Mr. Kishore showed when he claimed all these misunderstanding happened because Mr. Saumendranath Saha is not fluent and well versed in English communication. I was annoyed by this sort o[censored]nprofessional behaviour from banking people of an eminent bank like SC. Mr. Kishore also gave several assurances based upon zero evidence which I felt is quite unprofessional as well, coming from a big corporate house like SC. All I wanted was those assurances (viz. privileges including converting my NRE/NRO account into another savings account which has a lower average monthly/quarterly balance at the end of one year, which I understand by law a banker cannot insist a NRI to convert his NRE/NRO account into a normal 'resident' savings account) in the form of a formal email. But what I received is a "preferred banking MID form" from someone named by Mr. Rudraditya Bhattacharya. I immediately replied back stating all that I faced from their team and demanded an immediate email stating what and all privileges I would be getting on the basis of my wife's salary account. Today is 28th Oct and I regret to inform you that till now neither I have received a single email from their end, nor they have returned me all the documents (my overseas residential proof, credit card statement and banking details) which they took to open the account. This complaint is more of an awareness call, so that customers do not get misled by those people on the basis of their "word of mouth" and should always ask for a formal email or letter to prevent these sort of harassment in future. Kind regards, Arijit Chakraborty Neuroscience Researcher The University of Auckland, NZ