Is it illegal to have multiple bank accounts in India? Or, you can’t have more than one bank account henceforth? If some recent news reports are to be believed, as per the new guidelines by the Reserve Bank of India, a penalty will now be imposed on people with multiple bank accounts or bank accounts in more than one bank.
However, you need not panic as these news reports are fake, and the RBI is not going to impose any penalty on people for having multiple bank accounts or bank accounts in more than one bank.
After checking the facts, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has recently released its Fake News Alert, sharing a post on its official X handle, that this news is fake and the RBI hasn’t issued any guideline for imposing a penalty on people for having bank accounts in more than one bank. So, “you need to be alert to such fake news!”
It is clear, thus, that the recent viral news about the RBI planning to penalize individuals for holding multiple bank accounts is fake. So, there is no need to panic or rush to close your accounts.
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Otherwise also, there is no restriction on the number of bank accounts that a person or his family can keep in India, and people are legally allowed to have as many bank accounts as possiple. Numerous persons also like to keep multiple bank accounts for multiple needs.
Financial experts, however, advise people to restrict the number of their bank accounts to a maximum of 2 or 3 as having too many bank accounts without any purpose may be difficult to manage and you will also be required to keep a minimum bank balance in all the accounts, failing which banks may levy non-maintenance charges.
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