You don’t need to submit photocopy of your ID to exchange old currency notes

Post demonetisation, people are lining up in front of banks with their identity cards so as to exchange old currency notes with new bank notes. Following huge rush, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) along with the head offices of most commercial banks have asked banks not to collect photocopies of customers' IDs.

According to guidelines by RBI, the customer is only required to present and show his/her valid id proof and there is no need for photocopies.

"The bank only needs details and numbers on the requisition slip which the teller will match with entries in a document," a senior official of the State Bank of India, told TOI.

Yet many of the bank branches are insisting on photocopies and this has added to the queues infront of the bank counters. Some branches have offered to copy the document in the branch when customers turn up with only the original copy of their identity.

There are some banks who are having a dual approach. "While other banks might ask customers, coming to exchange money to submit photocopies, we are not doing so. For our bank customers we already have their KYC details, so there is no point in asking them for identification or proof again. For non-bank customers we do get photocopies, but we ask them to sign their names with date, purpose and bank branch," A Vidyasagar, COO, Lakshmi Vilas Bank, told TOI.

The gazette notification withdrawing the old high denomination notes from circulation issued on November 8 had said that people can exchange notes at any bank by submitting a requisition slip and proof of identity.