The Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank of India is working on a savings bank account number portability which would allow a bank customer to switch to another bank without changing the number itself.

"If a customer is not happy with a bank, s/he can shift to some other bank without having to change the account number", said DK Mittal, Secretary, Department of Financial Services.

However, experts believe that it would be a humongous task for the government to start such an initiative as that would need a lot of work on the Know Your Customer norms, core banking solution as well as identification code.

"Once the regulation comes in, banks would have to follow it. However, this just a start. There are some technical issues but we will soon overcome them. The move would help customer change bank without going through the KYC process all over again", Mittal added.

The Damodaran Committee appointed by RBI made recommendations to that effect: "The customer should have the facility of number portability within a bank even when s/he moves to another city or shifts his account to another branch in the same city."

"It is being examined. But it is not that simple", said a senior RBI official confirming the development. Experts believe such move would enable choice for customers and force banks to improve their service levels. The major deterrents of not changing a bank was the hassle of going through the KYC process and having a new account number would be taken care of that hassle.

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