I incurred losses of over Rs. 1.6 lakhs (including extra interest paid), in addition to me and my wife spending harrowing 4.5 years fighting against the injustice by mighty ICICI.
I had registered the complaint with Banking Ombudsman (Reserve Bank of India) in Jan 2006, who passed an award in my favor in Sept 2007 on the three of the 11 points in my complaint (the rest do not come under Banking Ombudsman scheme), and was advised me approach other legal means for other points.
However, despite RBI’s instructions, ICICI Bank did not honor the Ombudsman’s award, and I made an appeal with the Dy. Governor of RBI to look into the matter last year. The case is still pending.
Since I did not default on my EMI payments despite ICICI's every effort to harrass me, ICICI resorted in tampering my EMI cheque, so that the cheque is forced to be returned by my banker. ICICI refused to return me the tampered cheque, which would have landed them in major legal trouble.
Based on my own experience with ICICI, here are my observations on ICICI's monopolistic, unfair, unethical and restrictive trade practices:
1. ICICI lures home loan customers of other banks to balance-transfer loans from their existing banks/HFCs with lower ROI (and promising freebies) under a particular reference “Prime Lending Rate”. The same is also followed for new customers, who are promised (falsely) a lower Rate of Interest on Home loan and better service. Once they get the customer, ICICI starts arbitrarily increasing ROI/PLR, without any regards to RBI policy rates, market rates, or ROI offered to it’s own new customers. Customers who already availed loan get penalized. ROI reduction is not passed to existing customers even if the market rates fall on Floating Rate schemes.
2. ICICI uses different mechanisms (unethical and unfair) for raising, and for reducing the Interest Rate (ROI) on home loans, although the ‘PLR’ is supposed to be used as the only benchmark rate and mechanism for all ROI changes. The system is designed by ICICI in such a way, that a home loan customer is always at a disadvantage against new customers and pays increasingly higher rate of interest throughout the tenure of the loan. The ROI gap widens as time passes, and the borrowers are required to pay hefty penalties to ICICI bank on any foreclosure, part prepayment, or refinancing the loan, when they try to reduce the interest burden. ICICI, thus ensures that once they get a customer, it is locked with them throughout.
3. ICICI introduces new benchmark lending rate PLR (with a different name, although serving the same purpose, for the same product) again to lure and misguide new customers. ICICI has multiple PLRs for same product/service, which is not permitted as per RBI guidelines. New PLRs are introduce to get new customers at lower net effective ROIs (by using lower PLR and lower ‘spread’ or ‘margin’), and all the PLRs are increased in tandem over time. Thus, borrowers are required to increasingly higher net ROI over time, irrespective of market rates.
4. ICICI promises freebies (in writing, in advertisements) e.g. free personal insurance cover, free property insurance etc, however once the loan is availed, no insurance is provided, neither any policy is sent to the customers.
5. ICICI charges hefty penalties for loan foreclosure, prepayments etc. when the customer wants to prepay or close the loan due to high ROI. ICICI also charges the existing customers heavy fees for re-financing from other banks when the customer finds that the ROI charged by other banks are much lower than they are paying to ICICI. This is done despite giving in writing (sanction letter terms) that there will be zero prepayment and foreclosure penalty. No ‘foreclosure statement’ is provided as proof, which can allow any customer to file any complaints anywhere. Foreclosure statements are issued only when the customer presents a cheque for foreclosure (balance principal + interest + foreclosure penalties + other applicable charges)
6. ICICI forces customers to pay ‘switch fees’ for reduction in ROI to market levels on Floating Rate Loans, although Floating rate loans are supposed to have reduction in ROI when the RBI policy rates, or markets interest rates fall. ICICI does not provide any satisfactory answer on what the customer is switching from (floating rate product to same floating rate product, not to fixed rate product or reverse etc!). ICICI enforces one sided amendments in loan agreement during any requests for reducing ROI (slightly, does not synchronize to market rates still), and forces customers to submit a signed stamp duty paid agreement with all fields (amounts, ROI etc) kept blank. However ICICI increases the ROI arbitrarily without any fees or agreement from customers.
7. ICICI presents (for clearance) post-dated EMI cheques late with clearing house, and charges penalty on customers for ICICI’s own delay, despite that the customers have submitted all the EMI PDCs with ICICI in advance, and that customer accounts have sufficient balance.
8. No quarterly/annual account statements are sent to the customers, although the admin fee is charged in advance by ICICI. ICICI also refuses to accept post dated cheques during the last year of loan, although no ICICI document provided to customer says so. In fact, the customer is requested for PDCs through a letter, however, when the customer deposits the PDCs, ICICI refuses to accept the PDCs, and customer has to visit the branch every month to deposit EMIs. This is plain harassment.
9. ICICI charges interest even without disbursing the loan. The interest is charged from loan sanction date, or loan agreement date, and not from actual disbursement of loan. Another unfair practice.
10. ICICI refuses to provide any useful information (including account balance, interest paid, foreclosure statements, balance-transfer procedures etc) on request to customer-care contact center, and forces customers to visit the branch. ICICI forces customer to pay charges for any account statements collected at the branch, which they claim that these are not chargeable when requested through contact center (on which they had refused to provide any info). Despite that they are supposed to provide escalation contacts and internal escalations should work (as per the Banking Code of Conduct circulated to it’s customers), the same is not followed by the Bank. No escalation within the bank, even upto the Managing Director levels work.
11. ICICI puts undocumented conditions such as part-prepayment to be done for change in EMI, arbitrary amount for minimum part-prepayment, puts limits on number of times part-prepayments can be made during loan tenure or calendar and financial year, and keeps these changing without customer consent or informing them. Since such things are not informed to the customer, customers find it very painful when they go for prepayments, and are turned back without accepting the prepayments or change in EMI stating arbitrary rules as above, which the customer is not prepared to pay on the spot. This is not only inconvenience to the customers, but customer is forced to keep paying higher interest due to such delays.
ICICI also charges undocumented fees/conditions under different heads exploiting grey areas - e.g. for swapping cheques fees when EMI is changed, switchover fees from floating to floating ROI within same product, and also from one product to another new product, part-prepayment and foreclosure penalties which are not initially informed/documented, ‘documentation fees’ for prepayment.
12. ICICI hides several facts from the customers.
Several verbal promises made by agents (e.g. doorstep service, processing and disbursal on/before a promised date, simple documentation, single point of contact etc), however, the borrower finds that none of these promises are honored once the loan is availed.
13. ICICI doesn't even bother to reply to the complaints filed repeatedly, in person with their branch/head offices. In some cases, however, they will send irrelevant communication (e.g. arithmetic equation ROI=PLR+Margin, or an ‘request’ to visit their branch office again for clarification), without showing even an intent to resolve the complaint. No escalation contacts are provided, which is against their own published Ethics code. This is also deficiency in service.
Please be extra cautious while borrowing from this bank, or just avoid it altogether if you can.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Online fraud: 60-yr-old seeks police action against ICICI Bank officials
Pune, July 16 Karve Nagar resident Vinod Malhotra suffered a loss of Rs 95,000, which was transferred through 19 phone bank transactions in just two minutes
While cyber criminals are on the prowl, the increasing number of online fraud have also put a question mark on the security system of banks. Vinod Malhotra, a 60-year-old citizen from Karve Nagar, who lost Rs 95,000 to an online fraud, gave a letter to the Shivajinagar police station today requesting the investigation officer, police sub inspector S B Ghorpade, to book the ICICI Bank authorities in the case.
The police have so far booked Bhavin Gunwantilal Kakadia of Chira Bazaar, Mumbai. That is because Malhotra’s money was transferred into Kakadia’s account on June 2. But Malhotra has alleged that the loss occurred because ICICI Bank failed to protect his account.
Malhotra received a fraudulent e-mail on April 18, carrying a logo of ICICI Bank, seeking his credit card account details. Taking it to be genuine request, the elderly citizen submitted the details. He then sent an e-mail to ICICI Bank to check if they had actually sought the information.
On April 20, the bank replied that it was a fraudulent email. But on April 21, fraudsters used his credit card for booking tickets worth Rs 4,000 for Adlabs theatre, Mumbai. On April 21, the credit card was again used for online shopping worth Rs 3,083 through a US-based website.
Malhotra received the customary SMS alert about this transaction. He immediately contacted the bank and submitted details of the illegal transactions. The bank replied that it was a “phishing” attack. The bank then blocked his credit card and issued a new one, assuring him that his account would be protected properly.
But again on June 2, Rs 95,000 was transferred from his savings account. A stunned Malhotra filed a complaint with the Kothrud police on June 3.
The case was transferred to Shivajinagar police station since his account was with the Shivajinagar branch of ICICI Bank. “When I went to the bank with the police, a senior officer from the Operations Department said that money was transferred from my savings account through phone banking,” said Malhotra.
“The officer said that my mobile number was changed from the system. The fraudster replaced it with an Airtel mobile number from Punjab and then transferred money to Kakadia’s account through 19 phone banking transactions of Rs 5,000 each in just two minutes,” he added. “The money was further transferred to a private business firm’s account in Mumbai and withdrawn by the fraudster using cheques,” he added.
Malhotra said that he had given his mobile phone number to ICICI Bank only for receiving SMS alerts on account details. “I never used the net banking and phone banking facility. I don’t even remember the passwords required for these facilities. So there was no chance of me submitting the passwords to any phishing mail or person. I believe the fraud could have been avoided if ICICI Bank had not failed to keep vigilance on its internal security system,” he said.
Malhotra communicated with K V Kamath, the MD and CEO of the bank, requesting him to investigate the case and repay his money. After a 30-day internal investigation, ICICI Bank replied that it was not at fault and would not compensate for the loss. So Malhotra lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police on July 12. On Tuesday, the bank replied that his case would be re-investigated.
When contacted, ICICI Bank Head (Corporate Communications) Charudutta Deshpande said, “ICICI Bank has a fool-proof security system. But we don’t doubt the genuineness of our customers. Proper investigations will be done.”
Police Sub-Inspector Ghorpade said, “We have dispatched a team to Mumbai for investigations. But there is not much progress because the bank has not yet given us complete information about the suspects.” “We have not yet booked the ICICI bank officials. But we would be interrogating bank officials if required,” he said.
Pune police Cyber Committee Coordinator Sudam Choure said, “There have been cases in the past where secret information was leaked from banks. Usually, the bank employees on contract basis or courier companies were involved in the frauds. There is need for the banks to increase their internal security system.”
ALL NRI's BEWARE OF ICICI BANK
ALL NRI's BEWARE OF ICICI BANK -FRAUD & FOREIGN EXCHANGE SCAM - NRI ACCOUNTS
"I issued at check of 740,000 INR for my sister's wedding and there was enough balance in account. But ICICI failed to honour the check and levied me 448 INR for check return charges.
Even after following up matter for over a week they failed to respond on this issue, for which there was no reason. Their call centre located in some poor locality in Bangalore responded to me saying there is no reason that check would bounce, since there was enough balance on day concerned. He (One mr. Rohit, supervisor at call centre) said he would get back to me within 24 hours, but so far there is no response.
On the day of WEDDING of my sister I had to frantically arrange money to save my prestige and function. ICICI is no trustworthy and the people work there are nothing less than illiterate morons. Even after talking to their HEAD who is located in Dubai Mr. Nimesh Shah and Amarjeet Singh Walia at Bombay, I found no solution.
These people are just interested in piling up money and expansion without any service or reasonable approach. All that they need is money , money by any unethical means to pay to their herd of ill trained staffs who graduated yesterday from low profile colleges around the country who cannot even speak relevant to any technical matter.
THE GOOD PART OF BANK IS THEY ARE WELL TRAINED IN APOLOGISING EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT CUSTOMER IS ASKING AND AIRCONDITIONED BRANCHES, REST ALL SUCKS. I WONDER WHAT IF THIS BANK CLOSES OVER NIGHT AND RUNAWAY WITH ALL YOUR MONEY? NRI'S JUST BEWARE OF ICICI AND KINDLY REFRAIN FROM USING ICICI SERVICES. I WOULD BE CLOSING DOWN ALL MY ACCOUNTS WITH THEM TO AVOID FURTHER LOSSES.
I WOULD LAUNCH MOVEMENT TO CREATE AWARENESS AMONG NRI COMMUNITY TO STOP DAMAGE AND MISUSE OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY. THESE CROOKS ARE ALSO FAMOUS FOR LAUNDERING FOREIGN CURRENCY TO ILLEGAL ELEMENTS.
MY FOREGN CURRENCY WAS STALLED FOR 2 WEEKS IN 2005 WHICH WAS MISUSED IN GREY MARKET BY BANK ITSELF. FOR THIS LAPSE ICICI BANK WAS READY TO PAY ME 215 $ OUT OF WAY TO KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT. BEWARE OF THIS FRAUD BANK WITH NO MOTIVE OF SERVING INDUSTRY. THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR RHYME-- "HUM HAI NA POCKET KAATNE KE LIYE" "
"I issued at check of 740,000 INR for my sister's wedding and there was enough balance in account. But ICICI failed to honour the check and levied me 448 INR for check return charges.
Even after following up matter for over a week they failed to respond on this issue, for which there was no reason. Their call centre located in some poor locality in Bangalore responded to me saying there is no reason that check would bounce, since there was enough balance on day concerned. He (One mr. Rohit, supervisor at call centre) said he would get back to me within 24 hours, but so far there is no response.
On the day of WEDDING of my sister I had to frantically arrange money to save my prestige and function. ICICI is no trustworthy and the people work there are nothing less than illiterate morons. Even after talking to their HEAD who is located in Dubai Mr. Nimesh Shah and Amarjeet Singh Walia at Bombay, I found no solution.
These people are just interested in piling up money and expansion without any service or reasonable approach. All that they need is money , money by any unethical means to pay to their herd of ill trained staffs who graduated yesterday from low profile colleges around the country who cannot even speak relevant to any technical matter.
THE GOOD PART OF BANK IS THEY ARE WELL TRAINED IN APOLOGISING EVEN WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT CUSTOMER IS ASKING AND AIRCONDITIONED BRANCHES, REST ALL SUCKS. I WONDER WHAT IF THIS BANK CLOSES OVER NIGHT AND RUNAWAY WITH ALL YOUR MONEY? NRI'S JUST BEWARE OF ICICI AND KINDLY REFRAIN FROM USING ICICI SERVICES. I WOULD BE CLOSING DOWN ALL MY ACCOUNTS WITH THEM TO AVOID FURTHER LOSSES.
I WOULD LAUNCH MOVEMENT TO CREATE AWARENESS AMONG NRI COMMUNITY TO STOP DAMAGE AND MISUSE OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY. THESE CROOKS ARE ALSO FAMOUS FOR LAUNDERING FOREIGN CURRENCY TO ILLEGAL ELEMENTS.
MY FOREGN CURRENCY WAS STALLED FOR 2 WEEKS IN 2005 WHICH WAS MISUSED IN GREY MARKET BY BANK ITSELF. FOR THIS LAPSE ICICI BANK WAS READY TO PAY ME 215 $ OUT OF WAY TO KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT. BEWARE OF THIS FRAUD BANK WITH NO MOTIVE OF SERVING INDUSTRY. THEY NEED TO CHANGE THEIR RHYME-- "HUM HAI NA POCKET KAATNE KE LIYE" "
Housing Loan Fraud By Icici Bank
I availed housing loan from ICICI bank, and experienced several fraudulent/unethical practices followed by ICICI Bank, some of these issues are summarized here. If anyone wants to publish, I can
provide all the documentary evidence.
I am hoping that we all can expose these and alert others so that they do not get duped by ICICI, and that other Banks/HFCs who may be engaged in such practices also are forced to stop such malpractices.
Here is the summary:
*1. Lures new customers or other customers to balance-transfer loans from other banks/HFCs with lower ROI (and promising freebies) under a particular reference "Prime Lending Rate" . Once they get customer, starts arbitrarily increasing ROI/PLR, while introducing new PLR (with a new name) again to lure new customers. Customers who already availed loan get penalized.
*2. Has multiple PLRs, which is illegal as per RBI guidelines.
*3. Promises freebies (in writing) e.g. free insurance cover and property insurance to borrowers, however once the loan is availed, no insurance is provided or policy sent to customers.
*4. Forces customers to pay fees for reduction in ROI to market levels on floating rate loans, however ROI is arbitrarily increased without any fees. Forces one sided changes in loan agreemement during any requests for synchronizing ROI with market rates.
*5. Presents EMI post-dated cheques late with clearing house, and charges penalty on customers for it’s own delay.
*6. No quarterly/annual account statements are sent although the admin fees is charged in advance.
*7. Charges interest soon after sanction i.e. before the actual disbursement of loan. I had to pay interest on the loan which was not even disbursed for a few days.
*8. Refuses to provide any useful information (including account balance, interest paid, foreclosure statements, balance-transfer procedures etc) on request to customer-care center.
*9. Puts undocumented conditions such as part-prepayment for change in EMI, minimum part-prepayment, limits on number of times part-prepayments can be made.
*10. Charges undocumented fees/conditions under different heads explioting grey areas - e.g. for swapping cheques fees when EMI is changed, switchover fees from floating to floating ROI within same product, and also from one product to newer better product, part-prepayment and foreclosure penalties which are not initially informed/documented, ’documentation fees’ for prepayment.
*11. Several verbal promises made by agents (e.g. doorstep service, processing and disbursal on/before a promised date, simple documentation, single point of contact etc), however, the customer finds that none of these promises are honoured once the loan is availed.
Customer Care(less) Dept:
ICICI doesnt even bother to reply to the complaints filed repeatedly, in person with their branch/head offices. In some cases, however, they will send a irrelevant communication (e.g. arithmetic equation ROI=PLR+Margin, or an ’request’ to visit their branch office again for clarification), without showing even an intent to resolve the complaint. Clearly frauds done with an willful intent, and definitely no errors.
Sales Dept:
Effective, able to lure customers into one-sided agreements! Doesn’t give a hint that the customer is being cheated :-) Limited badmouthing of other HFC/Banks though.
- Parag
Parag Palsapure
Nerul, Navi Mumbai
provide all the documentary evidence.
I am hoping that we all can expose these and alert others so that they do not get duped by ICICI, and that other Banks/HFCs who may be engaged in such practices also are forced to stop such malpractices.
Here is the summary:
*1. Lures new customers or other customers to balance-transfer loans from other banks/HFCs with lower ROI (and promising freebies) under a particular reference "Prime Lending Rate" . Once they get customer, starts arbitrarily increasing ROI/PLR, while introducing new PLR (with a new name) again to lure new customers. Customers who already availed loan get penalized.
*2. Has multiple PLRs, which is illegal as per RBI guidelines.
*3. Promises freebies (in writing) e.g. free insurance cover and property insurance to borrowers, however once the loan is availed, no insurance is provided or policy sent to customers.
*4. Forces customers to pay fees for reduction in ROI to market levels on floating rate loans, however ROI is arbitrarily increased without any fees. Forces one sided changes in loan agreemement during any requests for synchronizing ROI with market rates.
*5. Presents EMI post-dated cheques late with clearing house, and charges penalty on customers for it’s own delay.
*6. No quarterly/annual account statements are sent although the admin fees is charged in advance.
*7. Charges interest soon after sanction i.e. before the actual disbursement of loan. I had to pay interest on the loan which was not even disbursed for a few days.
*8. Refuses to provide any useful information (including account balance, interest paid, foreclosure statements, balance-transfer procedures etc) on request to customer-care center.
*9. Puts undocumented conditions such as part-prepayment for change in EMI, minimum part-prepayment, limits on number of times part-prepayments can be made.
*10. Charges undocumented fees/conditions under different heads explioting grey areas - e.g. for swapping cheques fees when EMI is changed, switchover fees from floating to floating ROI within same product, and also from one product to newer better product, part-prepayment and foreclosure penalties which are not initially informed/documented, ’documentation fees’ for prepayment.
*11. Several verbal promises made by agents (e.g. doorstep service, processing and disbursal on/before a promised date, simple documentation, single point of contact etc), however, the customer finds that none of these promises are honoured once the loan is availed.
Customer Care(less) Dept:
ICICI doesnt even bother to reply to the complaints filed repeatedly, in person with their branch/head offices. In some cases, however, they will send a irrelevant communication (e.g. arithmetic equation ROI=PLR+Margin, or an ’request’ to visit their branch office again for clarification), without showing even an intent to resolve the complaint. Clearly frauds done with an willful intent, and definitely no errors.
Sales Dept:
Effective, able to lure customers into one-sided agreements! Doesn’t give a hint that the customer is being cheated :-) Limited badmouthing of other HFC/Banks though.
- Parag
Parag Palsapure
Nerul, Navi Mumbai
ICICI bank manager held for fraud of 1.3 cr
Mumbai:
ICICI bank manager Aatanu Bhusan and an employee Chetan Anand were arrested for an alleged fraud of Rs. 1 crore.
While three others were arrested in the same connection, the man behind the scam Shaikh Rashid Ansari is still absconding.
The three accused Salim Phirhati, Suresh Kulkarni and Bharat Mrugudal had bank accounts in Karnataka. Rs 16 lakh and 41.22 of two parties were transferred into their accounts recently.
Earlier a complaint about the same kind of fraud to the tune Rs 32 lakh from the GM motors ICICI account was noticed. Similar incidents have occurred happened in Malad, where Rs 6 lakh and Rs 40 lakh were transferred two months back.
The accused in both the cases are the same.
Meanwhile Charudatta Deshpande ICICI GM Corporate Communications, says, "I have checked with our business unit, and the exposure to the fraud is Rs 1.3 crore."
"The bank terminated the employee under suspicion and also lodged a complaint with the police," continued Deshpande.
"We are cooperating with the police. Other banks affected by the fraud are Axis and Kotak. The additional amount is expected to be another Rs1.5 crore," added Deshpande.
ICICI bank manager Aatanu Bhusan and an employee Chetan Anand were arrested for an alleged fraud of Rs. 1 crore.
While three others were arrested in the same connection, the man behind the scam Shaikh Rashid Ansari is still absconding.
The three accused Salim Phirhati, Suresh Kulkarni and Bharat Mrugudal had bank accounts in Karnataka. Rs 16 lakh and 41.22 of two parties were transferred into their accounts recently.
Earlier a complaint about the same kind of fraud to the tune Rs 32 lakh from the GM motors ICICI account was noticed. Similar incidents have occurred happened in Malad, where Rs 6 lakh and Rs 40 lakh were transferred two months back.
The accused in both the cases are the same.
Meanwhile Charudatta Deshpande ICICI GM Corporate Communications, says, "I have checked with our business unit, and the exposure to the fraud is Rs 1.3 crore."
"The bank terminated the employee under suspicion and also lodged a complaint with the police," continued Deshpande.
"We are cooperating with the police. Other banks affected by the fraud are Axis and Kotak. The additional amount is expected to be another Rs1.5 crore," added Deshpande.
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