At present, there is no defined common
structure for generating Bank account numbers by the individual banks. Each
Bank follows its own internal guidelines.
The structure of the Bank accounts
underwent a sea-change with the introduction of CBS. At present, CBS has been
implemented in all the banks.
At various forums, the bank
customers and also RBI were veering towards the idea of a common bank account
number structure across the banking industry.
The major benefit of such standardization is
the 100% STP of ePayments. Towards this end, RBI decided to constitute a
Committee “to examine Uniform routing code and account number structure” for
banks in India, in the Second Quarter Review of Monetary Policy 2012-13 on
October 30, 2012, (para 122).
The Committee has since been announced and
the committee
was required to submit its report by end-December 2012. The report has since
been submitted.
One of the main recommendations of the
committee is the structure of the BBAN
(Basic Bank Account Number). BBAN will be a subset of the IBAN (International
Bank Account Number).
The BBAN will be 18 digits long. No,the
banks need not change their existing account numbers. It has observed that the
Bank account numbers in India range from 6 digits to 18 digits. Hence, any Bank
with account number less than 18 digits, will pad the account number with
ZEROS.
The implementation date is not yet
announced as RBI has just released the committee report and requested for
public comments on the same. However, the Banks have a window of 3 years for fully
migrating to the BBAN.
It is envisaged that if the IBAN is
not in the standard format, the ePayment will be rejected at the Originating
point itself thereby minimizing customer discomfort.
