Awards by banking ombudsman comes down to 87 in 2014-15

The number of awards given by the banking ombudsman across the country has come down drastically to 87 during 2014-15 from 207 awards given the previous fiscal, said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The annual report of the Banking Ombusman Scheme (BOS) for 2014-15, released by RBI on Thursday, said that out of 43,035 maintainble complaints under the BOS, only 0.2 percent or 87 were disposed off with an award while 25,976 were rejected.

Out of these, four awards remained unimplemented as on June 30, 2015, in two cases, the banks have filed appeal before the appellate authority, and eight awards lapsed for non-submission of acceptance letter by the complainants.

For one award, the appeal preferred was examined and the case was remanded back to the banking ombudsman by the appellate authority for review.

The number of complaints that were resolved through mutual settlement/agreement stood at 16,893 last fiscal.

According to the report, over the last three years the percentage of disposal by mutual agreement is witnessing a decline.

Also there is a decline in the percentage of disposal by issue of awards which is less than one percent.

"There is a very steady increase in the percentage of disposal by rejection under various clauses of the BOS," the report said.

According to the report, a total of 88,438 complaints were handled by the banking ombudsman offices across the country out of which 84,660 complaints (maintainable 43,035; non-maintainble 41,625 under the BOS) were disposed.