In India even setting up bank accounts is not a very straight forward thing. I already have a couple of accounts with State Bank of India and Indian bank, and my dad himself is a manager in one of the banks, but that didn't stop me from having to handle some red tape in dealing with ICICI bank. But, my dad rightly insisted on me starting the process very early (within few hours of landing of India), so there is some hope now.
Given that there is no single national ID like SSN and credit history concept is not developed India, banks require physical introductions from existing account holders. I had my dad to introduce me and we went to the bank to sign the stuff etc. But, then there is so much of documentation involved (like providing photocopies of my ID and my dad's ID, signed by both of us, matching names, etc). After the initial visit to the bank (I opened in a branch 10 km from my place), I said I'm not going to visit them for each small step and asked them to send guys to my home if they need any documentation or signature. I started the opening process a week ago and my account is still not live yet. :-(
One good thing is that they have a lot of low-paid labor, and if you are a big enough account potential you can bully them into getting the docs done from your home.
Once this is done, I need to apply and get PAN - the national tax ID number, and also open business accounts for my startup.
Things have changed a lot for the better, but Indian system is still ridden with a lot of redtape and unnecessarily document driven.
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Yes. You are correct. For opening a new savings or any other account, without initial introduction, it is quite tough. But at the same time in metro cities opening an bank account with a zero balance account for IT guys is just half an hour work.
ReplyDeleteAlso i will suggest you to open a current account as you will find it usefull once your firm in developed.
So whats been happening?
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