Consumer complaints increase by 11.2% in 2014-15: RBI

Foreign banks only ones to buck the trend, see a decline in complaints reported

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s banking ombudsman has recorded a 11.2 per cent uptick in complaints by banking customers in 2014-15. The regulator said it received 85,131 complaints in the last financial year compared with 76,573 a year ago.

Public sector lenders accounted for 34 per cent of the total complaints, followed by State Bank of India (SBI) and its associates at 31 per cent, private banks at 23 per cent and four per cent against foreign banks.

While PSBs, private sector banks and regional rural banks registered an uptick in complaints compared to last year, foreign banks were the exception, showing a decline in the total number of complaints recorded against them.

The maximum numbers of complaints, 29.2 per cent, were received with regard to failure to meet commitments and non-observance of fair practices code. This was followed by complaints against credit and debit cards at 21.3 per cent.

The regulator said complaints in the category of pension (6.8 per cent), levy of charges without prior notice (6.5 per cent), loans and advances (5.7 per cent), deposit accounts (5.5 per cent) and remittances (3.2 per cent) were other major areas of complaints. Earlier this year RBI had directed all banks to appoint an internal ombudsman to ensure that there was speedy resolution of complaints.

“This will not only improve the banks’ customer grievance redress machinery but also enable banks to play (a) more important role in resolution of customer complaints,” Mundra said.

“During the year under review, there was 11 per cent increase in (the) number of complaints received in the offices of banking ombudsmen. This is a sign that the awareness about the scheme is increasing. The high point of this report was that the proportion of complaints from rural and semi urban populations had increased by 15.6 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively over the last year. These areas have remained low penetration areas for the scheme,” said S S Mundra, deputy governor, RBI.