Bank account holders will soon have a standardised unique individual account number with the introduction of real time gross settlement and straight-through processing in the banking sector.
This is because the electronic network of RTGS is, at times, unable to read alpha-numeric or complete numeric account numbers.
"Accounts numbers vary across banks," said R Gandhi regional director (Andhra Pradesh), Reserve Bank of India. Different banks have different customer identification numbers based on legacy issue and systems.
Some banks have 14 digits, while cooperative banks have 24 digits. Many account number are also alpha-numeric, making it more confusing for the network. "It would help if there is a standardised account number," he added.
RBI has urged the Indian Banks' Association to suggest a uniform account code for the RTGS regime. IBA has asked all banks to send the different customer account numbers in terms of savings account, current account, term deposit among others.
IBA has suggested to the RBI that since the longest account number is of 24 digit and RTGS has to accommodate all banks, whenever the digit size is less than 24, it will be preceded by zero, said a IBA source.
"Old private and public banks assign account numbers based on individual branches. Hence if the banking regulator comes out with a standardised, unique account number these banks would be the first to get affected," said a private banker.
Majority of the new generation private banks have account numbers that are unique to the bank.
At present, there are around 95 commercial banks and 14 primary dealers under the RTGS network. Five thousand bank branches across 450 cities are covered under this network.