Mumbai, May 10 (IANS) A private city-based bank is cashing in on the craze for 'lucky numbers' by offering its high-value customers bank account numbers of their choice.

 
 The service, launched recently by the Development Credit Bank Ltd (DCBL), has proved to be popular among its elite customers who are now opting to change the last six digits of their bank account numbers - the rest being bank codes common for all.
 
 “The service is free and available to both current and savings bank account holders, and existing and new customers,” DCBL’s vice president and head of marketing Gaurav Mehta told IANS Tuesday.
 
 The facility is available at all the 80 interconnected branches of the bank in the country, including 26 in Mumbai.
 
 The only requirement for the customer to get an account number of his or her choice is to maintain a minimum quarterly balance of half a million rupees.
 
 However, there are certain flexible options kept by the DCBL on the minimum balance requirement.
 
 Mehta said that many of their business and corporate customers have opted for the scheme and switched over to account numbers of their choice, depending on the availability.
 
 Popular preferences range from single digits - 111111 or 999999 - to birth dates, anniversaries, or the number 786 in different combinations, among others, he said.
 
 This trend mirrors the demand for customised vehicle registration and phone numbers, both for numerological purposes and as status symbol.