Sigh! It seems that even when large public sector banks in India try to catch up with the Internet age, they can't quite leave their sarkari mentality behind them.

I was researching online payment gateways in India as part of a project and came across a google ad for UTI Bank's payment gateway. I clicked on the link and was immediateley shown a Firefox warning about not being able to validate the site's verifying authority. Not the best initial experience, but I accepted the site temporarily and continued.

The site is nicely designed, but the most crucial information about pricing is missing. I hit the contact page to send an email and wonder of wonders, found a link to an FAQ page buried there. The FAQ page gives detailed answers to common questions. Ideally, this should have been a top-level navigational link instead of being buried deep on a page where one would least expect to find it!

UTI: An FAQ link on a Contact Us page

However, the best part of the FAQ page was the answer to my question about pricing. Take a look at the screenshot for the answer:
No pricing info upfront

I can think of at least two dozen online payments gateways (including CC Avenue and Transecute in India) that give this pricing information upfront. Why, these details are available even for ICICI Bank and CitiBank (I haven't checked their websites, but they are available on the CCAvenue and Transecute web sites).

So, what's the big mystery with UTI? I wonder if this is bureaucracy at work. By failing to give this information, they are most probably driving potential customers away instead of making it easier to do business with them.