In August 2021, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised regulations on maintaining bank lockers, making them applicable to new customers from January 2022 and existing customers from January 2023. The central bank asked the banks to put in place board-approved agreements with customers for safe deposit lockers and allowed them to adopt a model locker agreement framed by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).

The process was seamless for new customers who signed up last January; however, existing locker users have complained about the lack of clarity in the process, especially on procuring stamp paper, with many of them venting their frustration on Twitter. The RBI regulation says that at the time of allotment of the locker, the bank will have to enter into an agreement with the customer “on a paper duly stamped”.

While banks have been nudging existing customers for some time to renew their agreements based on the new regulation, as is the case with most deadlines, there has been a rush to comply since last week. Some customers said banks began alerting them only very close to the deadline.

People raised questions such as the value of stamp paper required for the agreements and whether banks will provide these. In reply to a tweet pointing out the divergence in the value of stamp papers sought by banks, the official handle of State Bank of India (SBI) said on 2 January that the value of stamp paper required for locker agreement was as per the stamp Acts of the respective states.

According to an employee at a state-run bank in Kolkata, customers have been asking for stamp papers, but the bank has run out of them. “Initially, we were giving them ₹60 stamp papers, but now we are out of it. We are asking customers to get it themselves. Some are heading to post offices, but they, too, are unable to meet the demand,” the employee said on the condition of anonymity.

A senior public sector banker said that over the past year, some lenders have moved to digital locker agreements. This, he said, has eased the burden on banks to manage the transition to the new regulation. Yet, queues of customers seeking locker facilities from banks show much needs to be done on this adoption.

“I have been personally involved in the locker norm transition. In the past two years, our bank has closed many non-paying lockers as it does not make sense to let go of a revenue stream. Locker rents are about ₹400 per month,” said the banker cited above.

The change in RBI rules has led to a steep increase in locker rentals, community social media platform LocalCircles said on 3 January. SBI, which used to charge rent of ₹500- ₹3,000 a year depending on the size and location of the locker, now charges ₹1,500- ₹12,000 per year, it said.

LocalCircles surveyed 9,381 respondents, asking customers how they plan to cope with the increased charges. While 14% indicated plans to give up the locker due to the charges, 31% are proposing to shift to a bank charging less, and 39% of respondents have no plan to change their lockers.