Women can use this place as a dressing room; jewellers can store their precious stocks here; and a company can keep in safe custody CDs containing crucial corporate information. And they can use this place any time of the day, any time of the year.
IDBI Bank on Monday opened a 24X7 ‘anytime' locker facility with biometric access to cater to customer requirements, such as the above-mentioned.
“The locker facility has good ambience, a special dressing room, and 24 hours availability of tea/coffee,” said Mr R.M. Malla, Chairman and Managing Director, IDBI Bank.
Realising that customers need to access their lockers outside banks' business hours and during bank holidays, IDBI Bank has launched the round-the-clock locker facility at its Cuffe Parade branch in Mumbai.
“For example, if a customer remembers on a Saturday afternoon (after a bank's business hours) that she has to attend a marriage in the evening, then there is no way she can access her locker to get the jewellery. However, now our round-the-clock locker facility will take care of such an exigency,” said Mr Malla.
After the function, the customer can come back (perhaps in the wee hours of the day) to return the jewellery to the locker, he added.
The public sector bank is offering its customers ‘King Size' and ‘Super King Size' lockers.
However, the lockers don't come cheap. To own one, a customer has to shell out anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 40,000 a year, depending on the size of the locker.
Currently, public sector banks charge customers anywhere between Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000 annually for hiring a locker.
The locker facility will be manned by the bank's staff in three shifts.
The bank is planning to open such locker facilities in the other metros and larger cities in due course of time.