Survey: What Issues Do NRIs Face With Their Banks in India?

We have been writing about the personal finance needs and issues NRIs face for a long time. Many of our readers, through emails, comments, and questions, have pointed out real problems they face dealing with their banks, especially the banks in India where they hold their NRO, NRE, and FCNR accounts.

We kept hearing the same request: write about the specific problems NRIs face with their banks. But specific problems are, by definition, specific to one person’s situation. So instead, we decided to run our own survey to gauge the actual “NRI Banking Experience” and find out which bank NRIs genuinely rate best in India.

The response was a genuine mixed bag, with some clients expressing real satisfaction and others expressing deep frustration. What follows is what the data told us.

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Survey Methodology

This survey, run in 2021, gathered close to 125 responses across 20 objective questions and 3 subjective ones. Twelve of these questions were specifically designed to gauge satisfaction levels across different banking services and expectations.

Our honest disclaimer: this sample size does not claim to represent the entire pan-India NRI population. But the patterns that emerged were consistent enough, and specific enough, to be genuinely useful for any NRI comparing notes on their own banking experience.

All major banks allow NRIs to open accounts, though not at every branch. With integrated Core Banking Solutions, most also offer anywhere-banking, internet banking, and mobile banking to NRI clients. At the time of this survey, RBI data showed 134 overseas branches across 9 public sector banks and 5 private banks offering direct branch services abroad.

NRI Respondents’ Profile

Primary Bank

SBI and Bank of Baroda had the largest branch networks in India and overseas at the time. Yet ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank alone accounted for more than 50% of our respondents’ primary banking relationships, at 31.5% and 20.2% respectively. SBI was the only public sector bank with a double-digit share, at 11.3%.

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Annual Income Range

As expected, our respondents were financially well-off, at least in Rupee terms. One-fifth reported an annual income above Rs 1 crore, and more than 30% fell in the Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore range. This is unmistakably an HNI-heavy client base that no bank can afford to ignore.

NRI Account Type

Most respondents held an NRE account (92%), used to deposit foreign earnings and repatriate money to their country of residence. A high incidence of NRO accounts (close to 85%) suggests many had a resident account before moving abroad that they later converted. Only about a quarter held an FCNR account, suggesting relatively few NRIs bring their foreign currency earnings directly into India in that form.

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Local Bank Branch Access

An overwhelming number of respondents told us they had no local branch of an Indian bank in their city of residence. UAE, Singapore, and Hong Kong were the only locations with double-digit branch presence at the time. Only 31 countries had even one branch of an Indian bank, concentrated mainly in the USA, the UK, Nepal, and a handful of South-East Asian and African countries. For a “global” banking presence, the actual footprint remains surprisingly thin.

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Banking Relationship Length

An overwhelming majority had banked with the same institution for years, with 88.6% reporting a relationship over 3 years and 83% over 5 years. This means respondents were reflecting on years of accumulated experience, not a single recent interaction.

Accessing Banking Services

Close to 75% of respondents accessed their bank accounts, online or physically, at least once a month, and 45% did so weekly. This is an actively engaged client base, not a dormant one.

What NRIs Actually Think of Their Bank’s Service

We asked respondents to weigh in on four specific questions: does your bank cater to all your needs, would you recommend it to other NRIs, are you considering switching, and does your relationship manager actually understand NRI-specific issues?

Over 70% gave positive responses on the first two questions, which sounds encouraging on the surface. But the real story is in the follow-up numbers.

Almost 95% of respondents said they may or would consider switching banks in the near future. And 55% said their relationship manager did not understand their unique issues as an NRI, with another 39% sitting on the fence, unsure. That means fewer than one in ten respondents felt confident their RM genuinely understood their situation.

“Nearly all our respondents said they might switch banks, yet almost none had actually done it. That gap between frustration and action is worth paying attention to.”

Rating the Actual Services

We then asked respondents to rate their banks on branch staff behaviour, service quality, online banking, RM turnaround time, and the process of changing residential status on their account.

Staff behaviour, service quality, online banking, and residential status changes all scored reasonably well, with only 11.4%, 17.1%, 9.8%, and 22% of respondents dissatisfied respectively. These are largely commoditised basics that any decent service institution should get right.

The real weak point was RM turnaround time. 35% said their RM took too long to respond or resolve issues, and another 33.3% rated the experience as merely “ok.” That means roughly two-thirds of respondents felt genuine improvement was needed here, the single biggest gap in the entire survey.

Does Your Bank Offer Goal-Based Financial Planning?

Goal-based financial planning is one of the few things that holds up regardless of market conditions. Since most people default to relying on their bank or RM for financial advice, this result was genuinely striking.

Only one in four respondents said their bank or RM offered any goal-based investment planning at all. This is a significant part of why people lose money in ways that have nothing to do with their own judgement, but everything to do with the quality, or absence, of the advice they were given.

What NRIs Told Us They Actually Want

Beyond satisfaction scores, we asked what additional services NRIs wished their banks offered, ranked here by how often each was mentioned:

1. Better communication and consistent follow-up from relationship managers.
2. Genuinely personalised service, with quicker response and turnaround times.
3. Digital token-based two-factor authentication, since SMS-based OTPs frequently fail to work internationally.
4. Simpler processes to update contact details, especially phone number and email.
5. Fee-based financial planning services for children’s education, retirement, and other goals, rather than advice bundled invisibly into commission-driven product sales.
6. Tax advisory and return filing support.
7. NRI mutual fund portfolio management services.
8. Doorstep or postal pickup and drop services for documents and chequebooks, especially in cities without a branch.
9. More paperless processes: eKYC, account opening and closing, transactions, and portfolio management.
10. Easier, more cost-effective Demat and trading account access.
11. NRI credit cards with wider acceptance, higher limits, and better rewards.
12. Advisory support specifically around returning to India, or relocating to another country.
13. Better internet, phone, and app-based banking overall.
14. Real estate advisory for both commercial and residential property.
15. More innovative product offerings from public sector banks, which several respondents felt lagged behind private banks.

The Improvements NRIs Wanted Most

We closed the original survey with the seven most requested improvements, again ranked by frequency:

1. Genuine 24x7x365 online accessibility across phone, website, and app.
2. An accessible, knowledgeable, and responsive relationship manager.
3. Faster acknowledgment, action, and follow-up on complaints.
4. More personalised service, with less pressure to buy financial products.
5. Stronger international presence, particularly in more US cities where many NRIs now live.
6. Lower charges and more reasonable minimum balance requirements.
7. Better interest rates on deposits.

Does This Still Match Your Experience?

Years on from this original survey, the specific numbers may have shifted slightly as banks have invested in digital services and expanded a little internationally. But the core pattern we found, satisfied on the basics, frustrated on RM responsiveness and genuine financial planning, remains one of the most consistent themes we hear from NRI clients today.

If your own experience with your bank differs meaningfully from what this survey found, or matches it closely, we would genuinely like to know. It helps us, and other NRIs reading this, understand whether things have actually improved.

Frequently Asked Questions

75% of NRIs are not getting financial planning advice from their banks. But all successful investing is goal-focused and planning-driven.

Does this survey match your own banking experience as an NRI? Share your story, good or bad, in the comment section below.