Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Catholic Syrian Bank launches global support card

Staff Reporter

Offered in association with VISA, it has a card-to-card money transfer facility

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Catholic Syrian Bank on Monday launched its Global Support International Debit-cum-Shopping Card in the city.

Offered in association with VISA, the card has a card-to-card money transfer facility; a facility that allows a person with a Global Support Card to transfer money through the CSB's ATM to any other person with a VISA card. According to CSB chief executive officer N.R. Achan the bank is the seventh in the country to offer such a facility.

The international launch of this card was carried out at Dubai in February this year. The first card was on Monday handed over to writer George Onakkoor by regional director of the Reserve Bank of India M. Krishna Mohan.

In his address Mr. Achan said the new card can be used at over one million ATMs world wide and at over 24 million merchant establishments worldwide.

"The card will be useful to NRIs who can use it in a foreign country and get the debit to their accounts in India. Moreover, NRIs can also maintain an account in India and withdraw money from that account using the new card in the currency of the country where they live," Mr. Achan said.

In another six months most of the branches of the Catholic Syrian bank will be connected to one another and this will enable the bank's customers to enjoy the `anywhere banking' facility.

The CSB had delayed the introduction of the CORE banking facility in its branches as it wanted to avoid the kind of problems being faced by banks that had already introduced such a facility.

"We wanted to perfect our banking solutions before we go in for CORE banking," he said and added that according to the Banking Ombudsman the CSB was one of the banks about which the public had the least number of complaints.

In his address Mr. Mohan said the RBI has taken the initiative to set up the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India; a self-regulatory body that will draw up the benchmark for best banking practices in the country. However, the mechanism to tackle complaints should kick in right at the branch level to enable banks to offer satisfactory service to customers, he added.

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