Customer complaints against banks down 3% in 2012-13

The number of consumer complaints against banks has come down by about 3% in 2012-13, while SBI topped the list with 20,030 grievances against it.

HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were the next two with 5,143 and 4,571 complaints respectively against them.

"During 2011-12 there was an increase in number of complaints received over the previous year, whereas in 2012-13 there was a decline of 3% in receipt of complaints compared to previous year," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in a report.

Of the total 70,541 complaints during 2012-13, 20,030 were against country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI). While 5,143 and 4,571 complaints were registered against private lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank respectively.

"It may be seen that the highest of complaints (33%) were received against SBI group followed by other nationalised banks (31%) and private sector banks (22 per cent)," the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006-Annual Report 2012-13 said.

"Compared to last years, there was a fall of 2% in complaints against SBI & Associates, whereas, complaints against private sector banks increased by 1%," it added.

Complaints pertaining to failure to meet commitments/non observance of fair practices code were a major ground of grievances, it said.

There was, however, a decline of 1 per cent in complaints received on this ground in 2012-13 over the previous year.

ATM/debit card complaints was the second most reason for complaints. Complaints of loans and advances, pension payments, deposit accounts, levy of charges without prior notices were other major complaints.

"OBO (ombudsmen) in Ahmadabad, Chennai, Guwahati, Mumbai, New Delhi and Patna recorded an increase in complaints received whereas OBO in Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram recorded a decline in receipt of complaints over the previous year."

As many as 51,000 (72 per cent) complaints were received through post/fax/courier, while 11,381 (16%) via e-mail and 8,160 (12%) cases were filed online.

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) was introduced to provide expeditious and inexpensive redress of customers' grievances against deficiencies in banking services.

A total of 15 Office of the Banking Ombudsman (OBO) cover 29 states and 7 union territories to handle complaints.