Edu-leaders

Tightening the visa norms, United Kingdom has blacklisted more than 1,900 Indian Banks. Most of these banks are scheduled and unscheduled co-operative banks and said to be “financial institutions that do not satisfactorily verify their financial statements.”

The new guidelines released by the British government has authorised merely 85 Indian Banks, from which financial statements will be accepted for students applying for visa.

This initiative comes as setback for those students, who need to show bank evidence that they have enough funds to support themselves through a course in the UK.

The UK Border Agency (UKBA), which controls immigrations into the country under the Home Office, claimed that most of the banks had been excluded from the list just because these institutions had not verified their financial statement to the agency.

UKBA has also released a list of 85 Indian banks whose statement can be accepted for visa purposes. This list includes various financial institutions, ranging from ICICI to Karnataka Bank to subsidiaries of foreign financial institutions including Citibank, BNP Paribas and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

A similar list of banks from which financial statements will not be accepted have been provided for Pakistan and Philippines too, although a much shorter list than that of India.

It is also said that the reason behind tightening the immigration process for students has been a central part of the coalition Government’s pledge to reduce non-EU immigration.