SBI, associate banks top customer complaint chart in Kerala

Top public sector lender SBI and its associate banks have topped the list of banks against whom maximum customer complaints have been filed with the Banking Ombudsman in Kerala.
"Majority of complaints were filed against SBI group at 42.8 per cent, followed by private sector banks (26.4 per cent), nationalised banks (23.5 per cent) and foreign banks (one per cent)," Banking Ombudsman for Kerala, Lakshadweep and Mahe, Uma Sankar, told reporters here.
Complaints against SBI and Associates and private banks showed increase of 14.5 per cent and 14.8 per cent respectively. At the same time, other nationalised banks and foreign banks showed decline of 1.3 per cent and 44.4 per cent decrease, respectively, over the previous year.

Individually, maximum number of complaints received were against State Bank of Travancore (673) followed by SBI (542), Canara Bank (201) and Federal Bank (197). However, complaints per branch received were more in case of SBI compared to SBT.
Uma Sankar said Ombudsman was concerned about the quality of service being provided to customers. When the banks are asked for explanations, the response has however been 'positive', she said.
The complaints included those relating to failure to meet commitments, non-observance of fair practices code, complaints relating to delay in sanctioning various loans, charging of excess interest rates etc.

About 14.1 per cent of the total complaints were card related. There was a decline of 9.2 per cent in this category, compared to the previous year.

Out of the total 425 card-related complaints, 274 pertained to ATM/Debit cards, levy of charges without prior notice accounted for 7.4 per cent of the total complaints.
With greater awareness about Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS), the number, range and scope of complaints has increased, but majority of them had not been in conformity with the procedure prescribed for filing complaints following which several complaints were rejected.
Out of the 3,049 complaints disposed during the year, 30 per cent were non-maintainable complaints which increased to 916 from 666 in the previous year. During the year, 2,133 maintainable complaints were disposed, of which 484 were resolved by mutual settlement.

During 2014-15, Banking Ombudsman's office (OBO) received 3,024 complaints as against 2841 last year, recording a growth of 6.4 per cent.
OBO handled 3,158 complaints, including 134 complaints brought forward from the previous year. As on June 30, this year, there were only 109 complaints pending.
On the rate of disposal of cases, Uma Sankar said it has increased to 96.5 per cent as against 95.5 per cent during the previous year and attributed it to the close monitoring of the pending complaints and constant follow up with respective banks.