Mumbai Police is transferring 50,000 accounts of its staffers from Axis Bank to HDFC Bank.
Sources close to the development confirmed that Mumbai Police has signed a memorandum of understanding with HDFC Bank earlier this week.
“The terms being offered by HDFC Bank were seen to be better in terms of insurance coverage, interest rates, free debit and credit cards, ATM transactions and other benefits,” noted the source.
The transfer of accounts is understood to have already started.
HDFC Bank did not reply to a query from BusinessLine immediately.
Mumbai Police had switched accounts to Axis Bank nearly two decades ago. Its MoU with Axis Bank is understood to have ended on July 31.
Prior to that, its accounts were with State Bank of India. With its huge staff and salary bill, it is seen as a high-value customer and will add to the deposit base of any lender it chooses to bank with.
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Political factor
The move, however, is not without political colours, and has already led to a war of words on Twitter.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, Deputy Leader, Shiv Sena said in a tweet: “Mumbai Police will transfer salary accounts of 50,000 cops from Axis Bank soon. Much needed move considering how arbitrarily the bank was chosen and state government employees’ salary accounts moved overnight.”
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta Fadnavis holds a senior position at Axis Bank.
“Let me reiterate — acquisition of police accounts by Axis Bank govt dept (erstwhile UTI bank) was done merely on basis of Bank’s technology and services offered. Mandate for these accounts was received way back in 2005 on 29th October. Dirty politics cannot bog down the honest and strong,” Amruta Fadnavis tweeted.
“Axis Bank is not my family Bank-it’s third largest listed private sector bank and I’m an employee who has worked for the same bank for 18 years! … These accounts were acquired in 2005-basis technology and services,” she further said.
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