Name spelling correction?

Question

My father is 83 years old and opened an account with your bank more than 10 years ago. His first name is spelt Autar but it was wrongly printed as Avtar in his old PAN card and his account was opened by your bank in the name Avtar. I recently noticed this mistake and asked him to get it corrected but your Bank asked him to provide a gazette notification for change of name even though he provided them with a PAN card and Adhaar Card with his name spelt as Autar. They refused to correct the spelling on his first account and opened a second account in his correct name Autar. He could have closed his first account except that my father has many fixed deposits linked to his first account and to shift them to the new account with the correct name would require breaking the deposits causing loss of interest. 
Despite all the professionals at its disposal the bank does not seem to understand that variations to the spelling of a name and change of name are two different matters. A name may be spelt differently on different documents as the typists were not very careful in the old days so different spellings of a name may prevail at the same time whereas a change of name is a conscious decision by an individual to alter their name on a given date. The matter was escalated within your bank but I keep getting a reply that gazette notification is required. I keep saying to them that he has not changed his name but they don't seem to have commonsense.
 

My father is a Wealth Management customer and now has two accounts in your bank, old one in the name Avtar and a new account in the name Autar. Both accounts have the same photo, date of birth, signature, PAN No, residential address, netbanking login but they are treating him as two different individuals even though the branch staff know that it one and the same person. He had the same problem with some of accounts in the Public Sector banks but they rectified his name across the counter based on his Adhaar and new PAN card. The public sector banks seem to understand the difference between variations in spelling of a name and change of name. bank first told me it was banks requirement then when I confronted them with the process in the Public Sector Banks they changed their position and said it was their own Bank policy. I keep getting a lakir ke phakir response that a gazette notification is bank policy. They seem to have no provision for name correction only change of name as they don't seem to understand the difference between the two.

Answer 1

Dear Nalin

At the outset, let me clarify that this site is designed and managed by a group of Senior Banking Professionals to assist Bank Customers at large to provide guidance for resolution of any complain/query/grievance in respect of financial services. This site does not belong to any Bank or a regulator, which may please be noted.

Very unusual for a bank to open two separate accounts for the same individual with two different spellings.  As rightly said, the commonsense should have prevailed and the two accounts should have been merged by the Bank.  Please complain to the senior management of the bank, asking for merging the two accounts into one, and that too retaining the name as 'Autar'.  The bank should be asked to close the first account (spelled as Avtar) and link all the FDs and other inflows into the second account, which reads as 'Autar'.  Please mail your grievance to the Nodal officer of the Bank.  You can find contact details of Nodal Officer on your bank's website. In case you do not get desired response, please do not hesitate to write to BO. For address of the Office of the Banking Ombudsman, Area of Operation (jurisdiction) and the procedure for lodging complaint, you may access the website https://bankingombudsman.rbi.org.in/.

RAJA