The Office of the Banking Ombudsman received the most complaints about ATM/debit cards and mobile/electronic banking (OBO).
Why is this in the news?
- The 22 RBI Ombudsman Offices (ORBIOs) handled 3,04,496 complaints, including those received under the three former Ombudsman Schemes, until November 11, 2021.
- ATM/debit card complaints accounted for 14.6% of all complaints, followed by mobile/electronic banking complaints at 13.6%.
- Approximately 90% of all complaints were received digitally, including through the online Complaint Management System (CMS) portal.
- The majority of maintainable complaints (66.1%) were resolved through mutual settlement/conciliation/mediation.
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
- The Banking Ombudsman Scheme is an expeditious and inexpensive forum for bank customers to the resolution of complaints relating to certain services rendered by banks.
- It was implemented by the RBI in 1995 under Section 35 A of the Banking Regulation Act of 1949.
- The Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006 (as amended through July 1, 2017) is currently in effect.
- The Scheme applies to all Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks, and Scheduled Primary Co-operative Banks.
- The ombudsman redressal is permitted under the current regulations for complaints where the compensation amount for any loss suffered by the complainant has limited to Rs 20 lakh.
- The territorial jurisdictions have been abolished under the RBI-OS, 2021, in accordance with the ‘One Nation, One Ombudsman’ principle, and complaints are assigned to all ombudsmen by the CMS.
What about other sectors?
- The Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RBIOS) combines three RBI ombudsman schemes: the 2006 banking ombudsman scheme, the 2018 ombudsman scheme for NBFCs, and the 2019 ombudsman scheme for digital transactions.
- The unified ombudsman scheme will provide redress for customer complaints involving service deficiencies if the grievance is not resolved to the customer’s satisfaction or is not responded to within 30 days.
- Non-scheduled primary cooperative banks with deposits of Rs 50 crore or more are also included in the new scheme.
- Because of the integrated scheme, it is a “One Nation, One Ombudsman” approach that is jurisdiction neutral.
Source: https://www.rbi.org.in/commonman/English/Scripts/PressReleases.aspx?Id=3340