Complaints to banking Ombudsman up 27 pc in FY17

The volume of complaints received by the Office of Banking Ombudsman (OBO) increased to 1.3 lakh in 2016-17, up 27.45 per cent over the previous year, said a report released by the Reserve Bank today.
There were 1.02 lakh complaints in 2015-16.
"Out of 1,36,000 complaints (approx) handled by the OBOs in 2016-17 (including the complaints brought forward from previous year), 92 per cent were disposed within the year as against the disposal of 95 per cent of the 1,06,000 complaints handled in the previous year," said the annual report of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme.
It further said the average cost of handling a complaint was Rs 3,780 during 2016-17 which was lower than the average cost of Rs 4,396 during 2015-16.

Issues pertaining to failure to meet commitments, non- observance of fair practices code, Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) Codes taken together constituted the largest category of complaints (34 per cent).
ATM/Debit card complaints comprised 12.5 per cent of complaints received while that of credit card accounted for 6.4 per cent.
The Banking Ombudsman Scheme aims to provide a quick and cost free resolution mechanism for complaints relating to deficiency of banking services.