RBI Ombudsman received over 13 lac complaints in FY 2024-25, while complaints against private sector banks grew

 

The Reserve Bank's Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) received 13,34,244 complaints in FY 2024-25, up 13.55% from 11,75,075 in FY 2023-24. These Complaints were submitted by email, letter at the CRPC, or through the CMS portal. 

9,11,384 complaints were sent to the CRPC. Of these, 1,08,331 complaints were sent to the ORBIOs and 10,589 to CEPCs for processing. The remaining 7,76,336 were deemed non-maintainable or non-complaints. As of the end of FY 2024-25, 16,128 complaints were pending before the CRPC.

The ORBIOs received a total of 2,96,321 complaints in FY 2024-25, including 1,87,990 through the CMS portal and 1,08,331 recommended by the CRPC. This was a 0.82% rise from 2,93,924 complaints in FY 2023-24. Complaints received per lakh accounts at ORBIOs declined from 8.9 in FY 2023-24 to 7.7 in FY 2024-25 at the national level. 

Of the total complaints at ORBIOs, 91.22% were reported digitally through the CMS site or email. Individuals accounted for the highest share with 2,58,365 complaints (87.19%). Among categories, complaints relating to loans and advances were the greatest in FY 2024-25, followed by credit card complaints. Complaints involving mobile or electronic banking fell by 12.74% year-on-year.

With 2,41,601 cases, or 81.53% of all complaints received by the ORBIOs in FY 2024–2025, complaints against banks constituted the greatest share. NBFCs accounted for 43,864 complaints or 14.80%. 

Among banks, private sector banks received the most complaints, going from 34.39% in FY 2023-24 to 37.53% in FY 2024-25. The percentage of complaints against public sector banks decreased from 38.32% in FY 2023–2024 to 34.80% in FY 2024–2025.

In FY 2024–2025, the ORBIOs resolved 2,90,567 complaints, including ongoing cases, for a disposal rate of 93.07%. Of them, 1,80,621 complaints (62.16%) were manageable, while the rest were categorized as non-maintainable. Of the maintainable complaints, 43.36% were rejected and 51.91% were settled through conciliation, mediation, or mutual settlement. 

The Appellate Authority received 104 challenges against Ombudsman rulings during the year. Of these, 98 were submitted by complainants and 6 by regulated entities.

The Contact Centre (toll free: 14448) operating from Chandigarh, Kochi, and Bhubaneswar, it handled 9,27,598 calls in FY 2024-25, a rise of 28.89% from the previous year. Of these calls, 60.64% were handled through the IVRS system and 38.59% by staff. Abandoned calls dropped sharply to 0.78%. Hindi accounted for 70.43% of calls, English 6.73%, and 22.84% were in regional languages including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Odia, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Read More

RBI released Annual Report of Ombudsman Complaint

 

The Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme for the period of April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, was published by the Reserve Bank of India.

 The Reserve Bank Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS) activities for 2021 are covered in the Annual Report, along with significant advancements in consumer protection and education throughout the year and future directions.

Download the Complaint Report

Read More

Complaints with bank ombudsman increased in FY18

The number of complaints registered at banking ombudsman offices have seen a 25% increase in the fiscal year 2018, with majority of these complaints coming from urban centres owing to increased awareness and poor internal redressal mechanisms of banks. 

"The banking ombudsman offices in tier-1 cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad accounted for more than 57% of the total complaints received by all BO offices," the RBI Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India has stated. 

"The higher proportion of complaints from urban areas in recent years is largely due to increasing awareness about grievance redressal mechanism among bank customers and also the efficacy of internal grievance redressal mechanism in banks, not being up to the desired level." 

Of all the complaints received at the ombudsman's offices, 97% of them were resolved in 2017-18, up from 92% a year earlier. 

Currently, there are 21 functional banking ombudsman offices in the country. These offices were established under Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006, and are the first points of contact for consumers seeking grievance redressals and resolutions against consumer frauds and discrepancies in the banking system. 

Most complaints received at these offices were related to non-observance of the fair practices code followed by those related to ATM, credit and debit cards, and for failure to meet commitments and mobile banking. 

In bank-wise distribution, most complaints received against public sector banks were pension-related while most complaints received against private banks were for credit cards discrepancies. 

The RBI plans to set up a compliance and tracking system portal to tackle the problem of cyber-fraud under the ombudsman scheme taking in light the growing impetus of banks and financial institutions on digital transactions and the Centre's push to a less cash economy. 

Read More

RBI to strengthen banks' internal ombudsman: Can you hope for faster grievance redressal?

Going forward, bank customers can hope to get quicker arbitration from the Internal Ombudsman (IO) set up by the bank as the RBI plans to strengthen these ombudsmen and also make them more independent. 

In the Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies issued on August 1, 2018, RBI stated that it has been decided to enhance the independence of the IO while simultaneously strengthening the monitoring system over functioning of the IO mechanism. 

The revised instructions in this regard will be issued by the end of September 2018. 

Customer complaints in the banking system are increasing. Even though the banks have their own grievance redressal system in place including an Internal Ombudsman (IO), the customers often feel that their complaints remain largely unresolved and then have to approach the external ombudsman. 

In May 2015, with a view to strengthening the internal grievance redressal mechanism of banks, select banks were advised to appoint Internal Ombudsman (IO) as the apex authority for redressal of customer complaints. The intention of the Internal Ombudsman of the Bank is to strengthen the grievance redressal mechanism and to reduce the complaints being escalated to Banking Ombudsman. 

The Internal Ombudsman (Chief Customer Service Officer) is appointed by the Bank with objective of enabling customers of the Bank to access an independent arbitrator for their complaints , when they are not satisfied with the resolution provided by the Bank. The presence of an IO further strengthens the internal Grievance Redressal mechanism of the Bank. 

Procedure for approaching Internal Ombudsman

The customer before making a complaint to IO should make a representation to the Bank. In case the customer is not satisfied with the reply given by the Bank or the Bank has rejected the complaint or the Bank has failed to respond within a month of the representation, the customer can approach/appeal to IO. The IO shall ensure that as far as possible, the grievances are settled through internal redressal mechanism. 

What if Internal Ombudsman doesn't help

In case the customer is not satisfied, the customer can approach the Banking Ombudsman (appointed by Reserve Bank of India) of the relevant jurisdiction if the IO fails to respond within a month of the representation or if the customer is not satisfied with the resolution given by the IO. 

Source - Economic times

Read More