Some Citibank customers are confused amid transfer of services

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Prasanth Mamidala, an entrepreneur based in Hyderabad, holds a Citibank savings account. He also has a savings account with Axis Bank. After Citibank announced that it will transfer all its banking services in India to Axis, he does not know the fate of his accounts.

“Will I have two savings accounts with Axis Bank? Will they shut down one of my accounts? I have tried contacting both banks but to no avail. From their end, there has not been any communication concerning this,” Mamidala said.

Confusion with transfers 

Like Mamidala, many customers are confused and worried as to what will happen to their accounts and services with Citibank after the transfer to Axis Bank.

“Without knowing what product we get, how do we transfer the relationship?” tweeted Vinod Kumar, a Citibank customer.

Satvik Sehgal, another customer, said that he is planning to close his account with Citibank.

Experts have said that some Citibank users have resorted to closing their accounts and services due to the absence of communication from banks concerning their issues.

A response to a frequently asked questions on Citibank’s website read, “The transition will be completed over time, and in an orderly fashion, with due notice. We will keep all stakeholders informed of updates as they materialize.”

Kashif Ansari, an assistant professor of taxation and personal finance at Jindal University and credit card expert, opined that Axis Bank may allow additional credit card customers from Citibank than its credit card holding limits.

"Axis Bank has a limit of three credit cards per customer. If customers with accounts in both banks have credit cards amounting to more than three, initially Axis Bank will allow this,” he said.

Consent communication

In a November 18 email to customers, Citibank mentioned several transactions that if undertaken on or after November 21 would be taken as consent to move to Axis Bank. For the last few months, the bank has been seeking customer consent for the transfer, and the latest communication is for customers who are yet to agree to move their services to Axis Bank.

“While Citibank has reached out over email, I have specifically decided to not give them consent since I do not wish to deal with Axis Bank,” said Sehgal, the Citibank customer quoted earlier.

Subhankar, another customer with Citibank, tweeted “Citibank has started sending the confirmation of the transfer of relationship to Axis Bank. If you have made any debit transactions of any kind, you’ll receive this message now.”

"The overall consent exercise began in July 2022 and we have been seeing an excellent response from our customers with nearly 70% of balances already consented to shift. Customers who transfer will continue to receive the same services with the same products post the transition. The recent communication is an essential step to ensure there isn’t any service disruption and for our customers’ convenience," Citibank said in a statement to Moneycontrol.

Ansari said that generally during mergers and acquisition (m&a) deals, the acquiring party initially tweaks some of its rules to allow the inflow of customers.

“Increasing the number of cards a person can hold is one of the things that Axis Bank can do so that customers do not worry,” he opined.

"We have not received any significant adverse feedback on this specific communication, and we are in close touch with all customers. On the contrary, consent by conduct very much allows customers to say that they don’t wish to transfer. A customer who has already consented can also exit any time after the transfer in the same manner as the normal closure of a bank account," said the Citibank statement.

Communications sent to Axis Bank were unanswered till the time of publishing the story.