TRANSFER OF PENSION TO BANK OF YOUR CHOICE

PORTABILITY OF PENSION ACCOUNTS

Subject: Shifting your pension account from the present Bank to the Bank of your choice: The Steps

For information of those who may be contemplating changing their Pension Accounts, given below is the sequence, given by a veteran who has just finished the procedure and has now fully understood through hindsight, after personally witnessing what happened at each stage.  (a) The pensioner writes a simple one-page letter to his own branch, stating:

 Dear Sir,

   Sub: Pension Account No. xxxxxxxxxxx 
   I wish to start receiving my pension at XYZ Bank, (give new bank’s name and address) with immediate effect.
 I have opened a joint SB Account No. xxx with my spouse at that branch for this purpose. Please transfer my pension to my new bank.”
    Notes:
   1 No copies need to be sent to anyone else nor any enclosures are required with the above letter. I had enclosed copies of my PPOs and endorsed copies of the entire package to PCDA (P), HDFC Bank and
 Central Pension Processing Centre of SBI. This was later proved to be a waste because none of these agencies took any action on the letter or the copies. Nor was any action needed on their part at that stage.
   2 Your bank most probably will not know what to do with your letter. You have to tell them that they need to convey your request to the Central Pension Processing Centre (CPPC) of your bank, and forward your application to them.
   3 It may be noted that the pension disbursing branches do not have any documents such as PPOs, joint photos etc. with them. These are all now retained at the CPPCs of each bank.
       (b) The CPPC will forward your request back to your bank along with all the PPOs and connected documents, which they initially received from PCDA(P) at the time of first grant of pension when you retired from service.
   (c) Your Bank will now send the entire bundle to your new bank with a request to take necessary action to credit the pension to the pensioner’s account. Please ensure that your old bank sends the Last Pension Certificate along with these documents.
   (d) On receipt of documents, your new bank will send the same to their CPPC.
   (e) Your new bank’s CPPC will examine the papers and may ask for additional undertakings, indemnities etc, as per their protocol. In my case HDFC Bank’s CPPC (not the branch) knew exactly what they

  wanted.
   (f) Your bank’s CPPC will process the papers (mainly to coordinate book transactions and heads of expenditure between treasury and the bank) and then credit your pension directly to your new bank account along with arrears accrued after the last pension was paid to you by the old bank. This takes about 2-3 weeks.
   (g) Though not written anywhere, it is highly advisable to intimate PCDA(P) regarding change of your bankers so that all future PPOs, corrigenda, increments, revisions and DA intimations etc are sent by
 them to your new pension bankers.
   (h) This is also a good opportunity to send the Lifetime Arrears Certificate to your new bankers, CDA(P), AG’S Br etc.
   (i) Please ensure that the account opened at the new bank is a joint account and has a nominee recorded on it.
  (j) Please also complete the formalities of internet banking operation for the new account, and get it linked to other accounts, if any, at the new branch.