• Cash Department
• Clearing Department
• Local Remittance Department
• Marketing Department
CUSTOMER SERVICES DEPARTMENT
The department that is responsible for opening and closing of an account assumes immense significance and holds a central place in the basic banking operations. In this department I worked under CSO, Miss Nadia Jatoi; who taught me about following areas of her department:
PROCEDURE OF OPENING AN ACCOUNT The Account Opening Form:
When a client comes to the bank, and makes a request for opening of an A/C. The officer first gave him a prescribed application form.
The name, occupation, and complete address of the person opening the account are written in the columns provided in the form. One signature of the person is taken on the face of the form and one is taken on the backside. These signatures should be usual signatures and he would operate the account with them in future.
Specimen Signature Card (S. S. Card):
The signatures of the client are obtained on a specimen Signature card. These cards are obtained in duplicate with two signatures on each card from the customer. Every time a cheque is received for a payment from the client, the signature on the cheques are verified by comparing them with the S.S. Card.
Issuance of Account Number:
When all the formalities are completed then the final approval of account has to be taken from the Branch Manager. After obtaining approval of the branch manager an account number is allotted to the customer and all the information is entered into the computer. Then that account number is printed on the Cheque Book, S. S. cards and account opening form.
Issuance of a Cheques book:
After opening an A/C with the bank, the A/C holder once again makes a request in the name of bank for the issuance of a cheques book. The A/C holder mentions title of A/C, A/C number, sign it properly and mentions the no of leaves he requires. Normally Summit Bank issues a cheques book having at least 25 leaves. Every cheques book also contains one leaf that is used for another issue of a cheques book
Entry of Cheque Book:
Before issuance of a cheques book, the employee performs certain functions. They include:
• Stamping every leaf if the account is photo account • Enters it in the Cheque book issue register.
• After entry in the manual register, and in the system the
employee issues the cheque book to the A/C holder after his/her signature on the register.
Recording in Computer:
After opening of account, all information regarding the account is entered into the computer. Currently, a program named hplus is being used for this purpose. Record of all the transactions regarding the account of a customer is kept updated in the computer.
PROCEDURE FOR CLOSING AN ACCOUNT
The procedure followed for the purpose of closure of an account is described in the following steps
The client who wishes to close an account first has to give an application, duly signed on the pre-printed application of the bank. The client has to attach this application with the liability form. The client can also give an application on a plain paper, but correct signatures are very necessary. Then it has to be made sure that if the account to be closed is a saving or Foreign Currency Account then the account balance before closing should be zero. In case of these types of accounts the bank does not take any closing charges. If a client wishes to close a current account then the bank charges Rs.150, so at the time of closing the balance should be Rs.150.
Along with the application to close the account client’s Cheque book is also received from him and then it is destroyed in order to prevent any misuse in the future. A liability form is filled and sent to the Trade Finance Department and Credit Department in order to check that the customer does not owe the bank a single penny in any regard. A debit voucher and a credit voucher are also attached to the liability form.
When both of these departments approve that the customer does not owe any money to the bank and the form is returned to the account opening department then the original account opening form pasted in the ledger when the account was opened is marked ‘account closed’ along with the date on which it is so marked. One thing has to be taken into immediate consideration that the account number allotted to the client (who has closed his account), after closure of the account becomes useless and is not allotted to any one in the future.
After approval of the liability form, it is sent to either the Foreign Currency Accounts
Departments or the Cash Department, as the case may be so that the officer who scanned it in the first place could return the specimen signature card to the account-opening department.
Once the S. S. Card is received back from the concerned official then the liability form, the client’s application along with the
specimen signature card is pasted in the ledger right along side the original account opening form. The form has to be pasted with the original account opening form even if the account was opened a decade ago. In the computer as well all the entries and records related to that particular account are permanently deleted by using the ‘close account’ option.
CAPTURED ATM CARDS
ATM cards when captured in ATM of SMBL are returned to the concerned customer on verification. In both cases, either the customer belongs to SMBL or any other bank, CNIC copy is demanded from customer for bank record, CSO fills the ATM captured card form and customer signs that form in presence of CSO. For the record purpose, ATM cards’ copy is also kept with bank.
If within seven days from captured card day, customer don’t contacts with bank, then bank is responsible to dispatch ATM card to concerned bank’s Regional\Head Office.