Credit card offers are getting attractive by the day and this tempted me to try a specific card. Let’s keep the name anonymous, but surely a lot of you reading this column may have had similar experiences.

When I approached the bank, I was instantly connected to a relationship manager who very quickly understood my needs. But just when I thought of signing up for the product, he said I need to have a savings account of a certain threshold with the bank. That’s when I opted out. When I prodded around, it turns out that having a savings account with a bank is almost a prerequisite for any asset product one would want to avail, and it’s becoming an industry-wide norm.

Like most of you, I have my savings account with a certain bank for a very long time, long enough that there is resistance to change banks just for the sake of a credit card. That said, its not that the bank I have a long relationship with on the saving side offers me the product which I need or the service required at the right time. Yet, from an operational standpoint, since the account number has been a reference point for all the personal requirements for long, we stay put with not-so-good services. This is true of private and public sector banks.

But why should a bank account number be any different from a mobile number. Just as how we port out of mobile networks that don’t offer good service while retaining the mobile number, life would be easier if bank account numbers also operate the same way. To be fair, this isn’t a new idea. The Reserve Bank of India came up with it in 2012, a year after mobile number portability was implemented by the Telecom Ministry.

True that mobile number portability took its time to become a reality, but bank account number portability is still in the cold storage. As a concept, it was way ahead of its times, though the time to execute it has arrived now, more compellingly than before. Especially, with the intent of the regulator increasingly focussed on vesting powers with the customer, whether in terms of services, products and, more importantly, pricing.

Banks are unlikely to take this suggestion kindly, just when the fight for low-cost CASA (current account–savings account) deposits is as challenging as the one for fixed deposits. How do we maintain stability in savings account deposits could be the initial reaction of banks to veto the proposition. The solution to that lies on improved service standards and the offering flexibility in product suites – akin to how it has lifted the customer experience in mobile network operators. After all, the customers deserve to be treated like kings not just at the time of opening a savings account, but forever if the account should remain with the bank.

With retail banking accounting for 55-60 per cent of business across banks (or more in some cases), introducing bank account number portability could shake up the way retail banking is done; a shake-up that would ensure that no bank can take its position in the market for granted.

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