"Elderly, disabled or customers with low financial literacy have the right to receive special attention to facilitate them to have a fair access to banking services," the Central Bank said.
Customers were also required to fully understand the products and services offered, exercise due care and disclose all relevant information including changes of address, under a 'Customer Charter' , the Central Bank's banking supervision department said.
The banks were asked to act on a code of ethics when engaging third party agents to collect debts.
They were asked not to harass clients, use abusive debt collection practices and disclose information to others.
Observers say agents of at least one foreign bank operating in Colombo have been harassing even relatives of credit card holders over overdue payments.
The Central Bank said lenders should have a written complaints pro