RBI releases final charter of customer rights

Guidelines cover a right to fair treatment, transparency, suitability, privacy, grievance redressal & relief

The rights of banking customers got a fillip on Wednesday with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) releasing a charter enshrining these.

According to the notification, “The customer should not be unfairly discriminated against on grounds such as gender, age, religion, caste and physical ability when offering and delivering financial products.”

The guidelines cover a right to fair treatment, transparency, suitability, privacy, grievance redressal and compensation. The banking regulator has also communicated that the customer should not be subjected to unfair business or marketing practices.

In case of a violation of the charter, the affected customer can escalate the matter through the chief customer relations officer of the service provider concerned, which can be further escalated to the banking ombudsman, if necessary.

If a problem is systemic or if the sums of money involved are large, the regulator could step in.

In a bid to address the mis-selling complaints, RBI has also stated that the products offered should be appropriate to the needs of the customer and should be based on an assessment of the customer’s financial circumstances and understanding.

It has also been communicated to the banks that the customers’ personal information should be kept confidential unless the customer gives a go ahead for it to be shared. Customers have the right to protection from all kinds of communications, electronic or otherwise, which infringe upon their privacy, said the charter.

Banks will also be held accountable to facilitate the redress of grievances stemming from its sale of third-party products.