MALAPPURAM: A group of employees of the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala having their salary account with the SBI was unable to decipher a message they received from the bank.
On June 28, after the salary was credited to their account, they found a massive sum had been debited from their account.
“I found a sum of `99 lakh was debited from my account when I checked the balance,” said Suresh Pullat, one of them.
Confusion prevailed after a few of them believed the amount was credited to their accounts and they suspected financial fraud.
Suresh said more than 20 employees at the Vaidya Sala encountered the problem. “We were unable to use our account and withdraw money,” he said. When the employees approached the bank authorities they were told the message was indeed sent by the bank and the account had been frozen after they failed to meet the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.
“It’s normal to withhold the account of customers who fail to submit documents for KYC requirements. It doesn’t lead to any financial loss,” said SBI Kottakkal chief manager K Nandakumar. It is to get customers to visit the bank and complete the mandatory KYC requirements that the bank initiated the move, it was revealed.
“All issues were cleared after the employees approached us with essential documents and completed the KYC process,” the manager said.
However, Suresh alleged he had submitted all the necessary documents and the KYC process remained incomplete due to laxity on the part of the SBI.