Minister of State for Finance i.e. MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary introduced the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2024 i.e. Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2024 in the Lok Sabha on Friday, August 9, 2024. Some changes have been made in this for bank account holders. Let us know what has been done in this amendment and what the opposition has to say on this bill.
Through this amendment, the government has made a provision to give the names of four nominees to the bank account holders from now on. Currently, only one nominee can be added for every bank account. In this bill, apart from wife-husband or parents, siblings will also get the option of making nominees. With this, after the death of the bank account holder, the money of the account will be easily available to the joint account holder or nominee. Having more than one nominee will also reduce the number of unclaimed accounts.
Let us tell you that till March 2024, there are about 80 thousand crore rupees deposited in banks which have no claimant. This is the reason why account holders are being given the option to name more than one nominee.
This bill provides for amendment in the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934, Banking Regulation Act 1949, State Bank of India Act 1955 and other related laws. For regulatory compliance, banks used to report to RBI on the second and fourth Fridays of the month till now, but it has been proposed in the bill that it will be mandatory for all banks to report to RBI on the 15th and last day of every month.
In the bill, the government has also brought a provision to increase the tenure of the directors of the cooperative bank from 8 years to 10 years.
This bill has a provision to redefine ‘Substantial Interest’. In this, the limit of holding of 25 lakhs will be increased to 22 crores. This limit was in effect for the last 57 years, which has been changed according to the current economic scenario.
The bill provides that the unclaimed dividend, share and bond payments of investors will be transferred to the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF). This change will allow people to claim and get a refund, so that the rights of investors will also be protected.
