IF YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM FORCEFULL RECOVERY FROM ANY BANK :
READ THE FOLLOWING.

IF ANYONE IS VIOLATING THE CODE COMPLAINCE :
COMPLAIN TO : DR.B.N.SOANS
BANKING -FINANCE & VIGILANCE
GOVT.OF INDIA
AT: 09245809644 - 09585323717
__________________________________________________ ___________

MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT FOR RECOVERY AGENTS
Applicability:
The Model Code of Conduct for Recovery Agents (RAs) will be applicable to all RAs appointed
by the Bank. The Code of Conduct shall form part of the agreement between the Bank and the
Recovery Agents. RAs must agree to abide by this code prior to undertaking any recovery
operation on behalf of the Bank. Any RA found violating this code may be blacklisted and such
action taken will be reported to concerned Business Group by the branches/ operating units.
Business Group in turn will send this information to IBA on a monthly basis to circulate the
same to member Banks for action at their end.
2. When & where RAs may contact a person on telephone:
(a) Telephonic contact may normally be limited to between 08.00 hrs and 20.00 hrs unless
the special circumstances of the borrower’s business is contacted demands otherwise.
However, it may be ensured that a borrower is contacted only when the call is not
expected to inconvenience him/her. Calls earlier or later than the prescribed hours may be
placed only under the following conditions:

(i) When the borrower has authorized to do so in writing or orally.
(ii) Due notice of recall of the load has been served by the Bank of the borrower, and
appointment of recover agent has been intimated to him, and the borrower is
intentionally avoiding calls of the RA.
(iii) Time and number of calls and contents of conversation will be documented.
(b) The borrower would be contacted ordinary at the place of his choice and in the absence of
any specified place he will be contacted at his/her residence in the place of employment /
business as the case may be.
(c) In appropriate occasions such as bereavement in the family or such other calamitous
occasions would be avoided for making calls / visits to collect dues.
3. Can the borrower’s Loan arrangement be discussed with anybody else?
Normally RAs should maintain borrower’s secrecy. However, the matter may be discussed with
his family members if borrower’s response to notice of recall and repeated calls made by RAs on
the borrowers do not evoke any response. Family for this purpose will only be close and adult
family members and will include spouse, son (including legally adopted son), unmarried
daughter (including legally adopted daughter), unmarried sister, father, mother, daughter-in-law,
grandson and grand-daughter.
3.1 Leaving messages and contacting persons other than the borrower
Calls first must be placed to the borrower. If the borrower is not available a message should be
left for the borrower to return the call or check for a convenient time to call again. Message
should be left with his business associate or person(s) representing him in the Bank and indicate
that “xxxxx (Name of the RA) representing xxxxx (Name of the Bank) called and requested to
call back at xxxxxxxxxxx (phone no.). The purpose of the call is recovery of Bank’s dues.”
3.2 Code adopted during the call
• The RAs will identify himself/herself to the borrower and will apprise him/her of the
authority to represent.
• State reason for call. Provide the borrower with all the information regarding dues and
necessary notice be given for enabling discharge of dues.
• Offer to call back, if the borrower is busy.
• Talk in language which is most comfortable to the borrower.
• Keep conversation limited to business
• Reconfirm next call or next visit.
• Provide contact number (for RAs as well as the Bank).
• Reasonable notice will be given before repossession of security as well as before its
realization.
• All assistance will be given to resolve disputes or differences in a mutually acceptable
and in an ordinary manner, if any as regards dues.
• Demeanor that will suggest criminal intimidation or threat of violence would be
scrupulously avoided.
4. Gifts or bribes
• RAs will not accept any kind of gift or bribe.
5. Other
• RAs will not accept cash and recoveries will be deposited in the Bank directly.
• RAs must be appropriately dressed, decorum and decency will be maintained.
• RAs will furnish an undertaking placed at Annexure.
• RAs would resort only the legally permissible activities during the course of recovery.Despite the hue and cry over the issue of recovery agents and the guidelines suggested by the Reserve Bank of India to regulate their activities, the menace fails to die down.

Not just in cities, but even in rural India there are cases of harassment by recovery agents leading to suicide.

So, in case someone comes in shouting at you, don’t panic. Guidelines have been issued to banks and outsourced recovery agents on what to avoid and how to behave. Here’s your guide to be treated the right way.

First of all, an agent is not supposed to visit you unless the bank has provided you sufficient notice. Such notice would include reminders via letters or phone calls. Only if these remain unanswered can the bank resort to using recovery agents.

When a bank decides to go in for a recovery agent, it has to inform the borrower of the agent’s details, such as name and telephone number. The recent guidelines issued by RBI on recovery agents state: “To ensure due notice and appropriate authorisation, banks should inform the borrower the details of recovery agency firms / companies while forwarding default cases to the recovery agency.”

If you do not get information on the recovery agent from the bank, the bank’s website is supposed to provide you with the details.

The code of bank’s commitment to customers, recently revised by the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI), states: “We will post details of the recovery agency firms/ companies engaged by us on our website. We will also make available on request details of the recovery agency firms/ companies at our branches.”

The 79 member banks — which includes almost all the scheduled commercial banks — and future members of BCSBI are supposed to follow this code.

If the bank changes the recovery agent mid-course, the borrower has to be kept updated, says RBI. “Where the recovery agency is changed by the bank during the recovery process, in addition to the bank notifying the borrower of the change, the new agent should carry the notice and the authorisation letter along with his identity card,” the guidelines state.

When the recovery agent visits you, he will first have to show an authority letter issued by the bank permitting him to collect dues from you. If you want, you can cross-check details with the agent’s identity card.

The recovery agent is supposed to visit only between 7 am and 7 pm. The BCSBI code also states: “You would be contacted ordinarily at the place of your choice and in the absence of any specified place, at the place of your residence and if unavailable at your residence, at the place of business/ occupation.”

This means the recovery agent is supposed to ask for a place where the borrower is comfortable meeting and only if not can he come at the residence, and if not there, then the office.

During all times or visits for dues collection, decency and decorum should be maintained, the code suggests. “Inappropriate occasions such as bereavement in the family or other calamitous occasions would be avoided for making calls/ visits to collect dues.”

Under no circumstances is the recovery agent permitted to thrash the borrower and his
furniture. If a customer tells the agent that he doesn’t want to speak to him, the recovery agent is required to oblige.

“The bank and their agents should not resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical, against any person in their debt collection efforts, including acts intended to humiliate publicly or intrude the privacy of the debtors’ family members, referees and friends, making threatening and anonymous calls or making false and misleading representations,” state the RBI guidelines.

To ensure that you have a proof of the agent’s behaviour, RBI has provided for documenting or recording the conversation.

“Banks should ensure that there is a tape recording of the content / text of the calls made by recovery agents to the customers, and vice-versa. Banks may take reasonable precaution such as intimating the customer that the conversation is being recorded,” the guidelines on engagement of recovery agents state.

Recovery agents are known to offer a discount in the repayment amount. Do not succumb to such offers, no matter how tempting, as the agents are not authorised to make any verbal or written promise to a customer. They are just supposed to remind borrowers about non-payment of their dues.

Even if the agent offers a receipt for taking a lesser amount, do not settle with him say bankers. If you wish to settle the dues, approach the bank directly, they say.

“The recovery agent is not allowed to compromise or manipulate with the customer in terms of money at all.”

Moreover, never hand over cash to the agent. Either give a cheque or go to the bank and deposit the money with the loan department.

For instructions, read the authorisation letter handed over to the agent. This will tell you what would be acceptable and what would not, as different banks follow different procedures.

If you have a dispute with the bank on a certain amount that you have not repaid, inform the recovery agent about it.

“Where a grievance/ complaint has been lodged, banks should not forward cases to recovery agencies till they have finally disposed of any grievance/ complaint lodged by the concerned borrower,” state the RBI guidelines.

If these norms are not followed, the RBI has the right to impose a ban on a bank from
engaging recovery agents in a particular area, either jurisdictional or functional, for a limited period of time.

So, if you have witnessed otherwise, make the same known to the RBI or the consumer forum. This can be done By aproaching the legal division of BAILERS
Allied Law inc.India who will take up and address such matters and will assure the grevied borrower that such rogue agents be brought to books and prosecuted by Law