You may be surprised by how often bank lockers are robbed. According to Finance Ministry data, close to Rs 200 crore has been stolen from locker facilities in the last three years alone.

This is pretty disconcerting, especially considering that for the longest time the bank locker has been considered the safest place to store your most precious valuables.

It also doesn’t help that every aspect of locker management in banks – from actually opening your locker, to eventually closing it – is extremely complicated.

The Supreme Court recognised this. In 2021, it passed an order that was meant to make lockers more secure. After that, the RBI issued a new set of guidelines on locker management.

But three years later, experts say the RBI guidelines are protecting banks more than customers.

So, the question is: Is your locker really the best place to store your valuables?

Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.

96-Russian Folklore: Cold as Ice