5,000 complaints against banks in Bihar,Jharkhand in 2015-16

Over 5,000 complaints were filed against various banks in Bihar and Jharkhand during 2015-16, a 12.27 per cent rise over last year's 4,456 complaints.
Out of these 5,003 complaints, 3,441 were received from Bihar and 1,284 from Jharkhand and 278 from other areas, Smita Chandramani Kumar, Banking Ombudsman of Bihar and Jharkhand, told reporters.
"Others areas" mean the complainant is not from Bihar or Jharkhand but the bank concerned is located in either of two states.
The maximum number of complaints were received against SBI and its associates (2,247), while 2,023 complaints were made against other nationalised banks (2023), 337 against private banks (337) and the rest against other banks.

At a press meet on the occasion of the release of Banking Ombudsman's 'Annual Report 2015-16', Kumar said complaints relating to pension issues and ATM, debit or credit cards constituted a major portion of the total number of the complaints.
During 2015-16, the Banking Ombudsman Office, Patna handled 5,128 complaints, which included 125 pending complaints. Out of these 5128 complaints, 5,035 were disposed of, while 93 complaints remained pending as on June 30, 2016.

Kumar said her office has been creating awareness about the Banking Ombudsman among the public especially in rural and and semi-urban areas so that they can approach it for redressal of their grievances relating to deficiency in banking services.

Seven such awareness programmes were organised at various places of Bihar and Jharkhand.
A customer with grievance can write letters or e-mails to the Ombudsman or file complaint online, she said.
However, Kumar said, a customer must approach the Ombudsman only after he/she did not receive any reply from the bank concerned within 30 days of making application.
There are 27 grounds on which an aggrieved customer can file complaints to the Ombudsman. The grounds include non-payment or non-realization of draft, cheque, non-payment or inadequate payment of interest etc.