How to unlock a password-protected bank statement PDF (HDFC, SBI, ICICI, Axis, Kotak, PNB)

Most Indian banks email your monthly statement as a password-protected PDF. The password is usually a predictable combination of your details — date of birth, customer ID, PAN, or account number — but every bank uses a different format. If you handle multiple bank accounts (your own and your clients'), you end up remembering several different rules at once. Here's the exact pattern for each major bank, plus the recovery flow for the case where none of them work.

The cheat sheet — every bank, one line each

The detail — what to type, exactly

HDFC Bank

First 4 letters of your name in UPPERCASE + date of birth as DDMM. Rajesh Kumar, born 15 March 1985 → RAJE1503. If your first name is shorter than 4 letters, HDFC pads with the first letters of your surname (Ami Patel → AMIP).

ICICI Bank

Same as HDFC: first 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMM. Priyanka born 23 August → PRIY2308. Joint accounts: use the first-named holder.

State Bank of India (SBI)

First 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMMYY of DOB. Rajesh Kumar, born 15 March 1985 → RAJE150385. Note SBI uses two-digit year, not four; this is one of the most common mistakes when people try the HDFC pattern on an SBI file.

Axis Bank

First 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMM of DOB. Some Axis credit card statements use the last 4 digits of your card number instead — check the email subject line, which usually indicates the product (Current Account vs Credit Card).

Kotak Mahindra Bank

Your Customer Relationship Number (CRN), all digits, usually 10–12 digits long. Find it on any account statement header, or in the Kotak app under Profile. Credit-card statements from Kotak use a different format: DOB as DDMMYYYY + last 4 of the card number.

Punjab National Bank (PNB)

Your account number, all digits, no spaces or dashes. For PNB Internet Banking PDFs (different from the emailed monthly statement), the password is sometimes your User ID followed by the last 4 digits of your account number — try the bare account number first.

Bank of Baroda (BOB)

Account number, 14 digits. Some older BOB statements use date of birth in DDMMYYYY format instead. If both fail, the BOB app shows the password format explicitly under Account → Statement.

Bank of India (BOI)

Registered mobile number, 10 digits, no country code. If your mobile changed recently the bank may still be using the old number for statement encryption — log into NetBanking and confirm under Profile.

Yes Bank

DDMMYY of DOB + first 4 of name in lowercase. Note the reversed order and the lowercase — this is one of the few banks that lowercases. Raj Patel, born 15 March 1985 → 150385rajp.

IDFC FIRST Bank

First 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMMYYYY of DOB. Note the four-digit year, unlike SBI's two-digit. Amit Sharma, born 15 March 1985 → AMIT15031985.

IndusInd Bank

Customer ID, 8 digits. Same as your IndusInd Net Banking user ID. If you can't find it, the welcome letter you got at account opening shows it on page 1.

Federal Bank

First 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMM of DOB. Same pattern as HDFC and ICICI.

HSBC India / Citi India / DBS India

Multinational banks operating in India tend to follow the HDFC pattern: first 4 of name (UPPER) + DDMM. DBS India inherited some Lakshmi Vilas Bank account formats post-merger which still use the older LVB pattern (CRN-only); try the HDFC pattern first.

What to do if none of these work

Three checks before you call the bank:

1. Check the name spelling. Use your registered name with the bank, not a nickname. Middle names matter; ignore titles (Mr/Mrs/Dr/Prof). Joint accounts use the first-named holder. Anglicised names (Joseph vs Yousuf) — try both.
2. Try both date interpretations. Some banks format DOB as DDMM, others as MMDD, especially on older statements. SBI in particular has legacy accounts where MMDD was used pre-2010.
3. Check the email body.The accompanying email usually states the password format explicitly. Search the email for "password is" or "your password is the".

Still locked out? Log into the bank's Net Banking portal and download an unlocked copy directly from the Statements section — most banks offer this as an alternative to the emailed PDF. The Net Banking password is different from the statement-PDF password, but it's the one you reset more often, so it's usually the easier path.

The shortcut — let the converter handle the password

You don't need to remove the password yourself. StatementEdge opens password-protected PDFs directly: drop the file on the upload zone, click PDF locked? Add a passwordbelow it, type the password, and we decrypt the PDF in memory during conversion. The password is only used for that one job — it's never written to our database, never logged, and gets stripped from any error reports before they leave our infrastructure.

Prefer to strip the password yourself first?

Three reliable methods if you want an unencrypted copy of the PDF for your own files:

• macOS: Open in Preview → File → Export → uncheck Encrypt. Save the unencrypted copy under a clear filename.
• Windows + Adobe Reader:Open the PDF with the password → File → Print → choose "Microsoft Print to PDF" → save. The printed copy has no password.
• Chrome / Edge browser:Drag the PDF into a new tab → enter password → Print → Save as PDF (destination: "Save as PDF"). Same effect as Print-to-PDF on Windows.

Then drop the unlocked copy on the upload zone. Either path produces the same result — pick whichever fits your trust boundary preferences.

Further reading

• All Indian bank conversion pages — per-bank workflows for HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Axis, Kotak, IDFC FIRST, etc.
• Why your QuickBooks import keeps failing — what happens after the decrypt step.
• What "auto-reconciled" actually means — every Indian-bank statement gets the same chain-of-balance check as a UK or US statement.
• Our security posture — exactly what happens to your password and PDF during the conversion job.