How safe is your money in Indian

Banks

Indian Bank deposits insured? - Is your money safe in Indian Banks? Several Financial institutions have run into problems and India’s Deposit Insurance and credit guarantee corporation (DICGC) had to step in. As of October 31, 2017 there were 15 banks on the De-registered list with claim list submission was pending. • For a list of Banks under liquidation/De- registered where claim lists have not been received, submission is pending - Status as on October 31, 2017 Click HERE • For a list of Commercial Banks that have been De-Registered lick HERE One of the first things that come to mind when choosing a bank in western countries today probably is customer service. However when choosing a bank in India the first question that one may ponder could be the safety of their money.

How Safe is your money?

Residents of the United States, Canada and European countries take bank deposit insurance for granted. Banks going bankrupt and depositors loosing money in the west are not something that happens often. Banks in most developed countries have some kind of bank deposit insurance schemes where banks accounts are automatically insured. In the rare case a bank suffers problems and cannot meet their obligations to repay their depositors. The account holders are paid from the deposit insurance up to the maximum limit of the deposit insurance per account. The amounts of coverage for deposit insurance varies according to banking laws of country where the banks are located in.

Insurance Protection for your Indian

Bank Accounts . . .

In the United States bank accounts are covered by deposit insurance by the FDIC for up to $100,000 per account. Account holders do not have to pay for this protection. In case you are wondering if your bank account in the United States is protected by deposit insurance then you can check by using the link 'Is my USA bank covered by FDIC?' Canada also has protection for bank accounts and the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation(CDIC) insures bank accounts for $100,000. In case a bank goes bankrupt the account holders would be paid the full amount of their deposits up to a maximum of $100,000. Canadian residents who have bank accounts and want to check if their banks are members of The Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation can check by using the link 'Is my bank account covered by deposit insurance' European countries also have some form of deposit insurance to protect their bank customers. The amount of insurance varies amongst different countries. For the United Kingdom deposit insurance is provided by 'Financial Services Compensation Scheme' The amount insured I believe was raised on 7 October 2008 and has been raised so each saver's first £50,000 per bank is fully protected. The deposit insurance information for UK can be viewed HERE.

Do Banks in India offer deposit

Insurance protection?

Yes! India’s banks also have consumer protection for its banking customers. However the catch is that the maximum protection is, to the best of my knowledge, only Rupees one lakh. This works out to less than $2500 per account. Compare that with the $100,000 coverage provided by the US and Canadian banks. The agency that provided deposit insurance for Indian banks is called The Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) If you have a bank account in India and want to check if your Indian bank account is covered by the DICGC you can do so by using the links provided below: • For a list of Commercial Banks in India insured by DICGC Click HERE • For a list of Cooperative Banks in India insured by DICGC Click HERE Please Note: I find that many websites in India periodically change their web page addresses without proper redirection of pages and this makes links posted useless. If you find a link not working kindly email me so it can be updated and be helpful to others.

How careful can one be when

selecting a bank in India.

The best advice is look at reputation. Don't rush to open accounts with banks that offer interest on your deposits that appear to be highly inflated than market rates. India has several excellent financially sound banks that can definitely be considered as world class banks. Banking sector now has so many excellent choices and services offered by Indian banks have improved so much because of competition. Whether its online banking, debit cards or ATM's Indian banks offer their customers just about every banking service.