In 2008, I Tapan Chattopadhyay purchased a life insurance policy from AMERICAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY( ALICO) brokered by their official broker NRI BUSINESS DIVISION of Citibank N.A. India representative office in Bahrain( The BANK) for a endowment sum of US$200000.00 with a monthly premium of US$ 764.00 payable for a period of next 10 years. I was advised by the BANK to open a DOLLAR CHECKING ACCOUNT with Citibank Singapore Limited in Singapore in order to pay monthly premium towards the policy of ALICO here in their Bahrain office every month. In 2009, faced with a very difficult financial hardship, I requested the BANK verbally to arrange a temporary reprieve from paying the monthly premiums for a period of few months. Having failed to receive any concrete and constructive response from the BANK for a long time, I wrote directly to ALICO on 23rd Oct. 2009 in an e-mail explaining my reason of my asking a temporary reprieve, I received a reply by e-mail on 8th Nov. 2009, which surmised that my FUND VALUE AS ON 23rd Oct. 2009 is around US$ 11000. And the policy would be in force with full benefits even without paying for some months. Again, when I requested an explanation behind the reasons of quite unusual deductions ( nearly 25% of premiums) every month since the starting day of the policy, I was informed by e-mail dated 18th March 2010 that my policy was lapsed with effective from 01st Nov. 2009. All these period, I received no communications either verbal or written from the BANK informing me of policy being lapsed and terminated. But they were being paid 15 % of the premiums as a commission without even explaining me in the beginning. WHAT A SUCKER!!!
Devastated by the information, I asked the BANK to close my account in Singapore and return me the balance amounts in the form of DRAFT in INR. To my astonishment, The Draft was debited from a nonexistent and phoney NRE ACCOUNT of mine with Citibank N.A. Mumbai, India. Upon confronted by questions as to how they have been operating such account without my knowledge and authorization, The BANK furnished me with an explanation which was far from truth and satisfactory.
I started enquiring about the genuineness of the very existence of the DOLLAR CHECKING ACCOUNT with Citibank Singapore Limited in Singapore and found that there is no such account in the Citibank Singapore Limited’s product list. Then where those billions of us dollar end up is a big puzzle, which till date Citi did not answer me even after repeated request.
The BANK is operating in flouting the banking rules and regulations of every country. There are hundreds of thousand of NON RESIDENT INDIAN customers in every country are being taken for a ride and The BANK is keeping the Regulators in the dark of their dubious banking practices.. The BANK is not in any way furthering the cause of the host country's economy. Nor the country where they are registered.(because The BANK require by THE INDIAN BANKING REGULATIONS ACT to further the cause of the Indian banking and the economy).