Listen To This Post
New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday clarified that banks cannot see or record the contents of customer lockers, ruling out the possibility of differential insurance coverage based on the contents of customer lockers.
Replying to a supplementary question in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said allowing banks to monitor or document the contents of locker would amount to a breach of banking regulations and customer privacy.
“Sitting and watching the disclosure of what a client keeps in a locker is a breach of rules, and banks would not do that,” she said.
She explained that due to this limitation, it is not feasible to assess the actual value of items stored, making value-based insurance impractical.
Standard Compensation Rule
The Finance Minister said compensation in the event of a loss—such as a locker break-in—is currently set at 100 times the annual locker rent. “For each locker separately, it is not possible to assess contents. Therefore, 100 times the rent is the standard compensation,” she added, noting that there is no proposal under consideration to revise the framework.
The clarification comes amid concerns raised by customers about the adequacy of compensation and the safety of bank lockers, with the government reiterating that privacy norms prevent any content-based assessment.
