Ombudsman disposed of 95% of complaints received in FY24, says RBI

Complaints against banks and NBFCs represented 82.28 per cent and 14.53 per cent of the total complaints, respectively. Loans, advances formed the largest category under which complaints are recieved

The RBI on Friday said the ombudsman disposed of 95.1 per cent of the complaints it received between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024.

Under the Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), a total of 9,34,355 complaints were received by the Office of Reserve Bank of India Ombudsman ORBIOs and the Centralised Receipt and Processing Centre (CRPC), said the Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme for the period April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.

"A total of 2,84,355 complaints were disposed by the ORBIOs during the year, thereby achieving a disposal rate of 95.10 per cent," it said.

Out of the total complaints received at the ORBIOs, 88.77 per cent were received through digital modes, including on the online Complaint Management System (CMS) portal, email, and Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS).

The share of complaints from individuals in the total complaints was the highest at 2,56,527 (87.27 per cent) in the financial year 2023-24.

Complaints against banks and NBFCs represented 82.28 per cent and 14.53 per cent of the total complaints, respectively. Loans and advances formed the largest category (29.01 per cent) under which complaints were received.

During the year, 82 appeals were received by the Appellate Authority against the decisions of the RBI Ombudsmen, of which 72 appeals were received from the complainants and 10 appeals were received from the regulated entities (REs).

CRPC witnessed a significant rise in complaints, receiving 7,66,957 complaints (including assigned to ORBIOs/CEPCs), which was 30.10 per cent higher as compared to the previous year.

Of these, 7,58,483 complaints were disposed at CRPC.

While 6,31,876 complaints were closed as non-complaints/non-maintainable complaints, 1,26,607 complaints were assigned to ORBIOs/ Consumer Education and Protection Cell (CEPCs) for further redress.

On way forward, the report said Consumer Education and Protection Department has identified the certain goals for the period April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025, under the Reserve Bank's medium-term strategy framework (Utkarsh 2.0) and other short term goals, for enhancing consumer protection and improving grievance redress mechanisms.

These include further improvement in the complaint management system to enhance support in lodging complaints and to ensure greater consistency in decisions and outcomes (Utkarsh 2.0); and development of a consumer protection assessment matrix for REs (Utkarsh 2.0).

The Reserve Bank - Integrated Ombudsman Scheme (RB-IOS), 2021 provides an Alternate Grievance Redress (AGR) mechanism for expeditious and cost-free grievance redressal of customer complaints that have not been satisfactorily redressed by the Regulated Entities (REs) or where the complainants have not been replied to within a period of 30 days by the REs.