Private banks block accounts for want of Aadhaar

Hyderabad: Certain private banks have frozen accounts of customers and when asked why, say it is because the Aadhaar linkage is missing. The Supreme Court is yet to deliver its judgment on whether such linkage is mandatory so such arm-twisting is wrong.  

Accounts with high currency deposits or large fixed deposits have mostly been “blocked” without any prior notice issued to the customer. These complaints are not restricted to the state but are coming in from all over the country. 

Sources revealed that bank officials have been given a target to link 15 to 20 accounts with Aadhaar every day. Shockingly, the monthly rewards, incentives and promotions of bank staffers are linked to such targets.

Sumitha Reddy (name changed) told Deccan Chronicle that two of her accounts (one saving with over 3 lakh and another current account) with Axis Bank were frozen in the first week of June without giving her prior notice. 

“When I approached the Jubilee Hills branch, the staffer asked me for my Aadhaar number, I had no choice but to share the details as I needed my account to be operational,” she said.

Keerthi Kumar Naidu, a customer with HDFC faced a similar situation but refused to provide his Aadhaar card and managed to have his account unblocked, “When I objected to their demand, the staffer after speaking to his  manager unblocked my account. They did not give any reason as to why my savings account was frozen. I found several private banks have established Aadhaar counters within the bank premises especially to link the identification number when fresh accounts are opened.”

Substantiating this claim Srinivas Kodali, an independent a cybersecurity researcher, added, “Accounts having high amounts and high fixed deposits that are not linked to Aadhaar are being blocked. This practice has been rampant. However, it stopped midway after scores of complaints were lodged against the banks, but now bankers have re-started it. The real motive can be that banks want to collect data of people for their own interests. This might also lead to banks making profits out of the data collected.”

Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) guidelines, banks are not supposed to insist on Aadhaar cards when opening a fresh account.