FinMin asks banks, insurance firms to expedite public grievances resolution

The Finance Ministry on Wednesday urged public sector banks (PSBs) and insurance companies to expedite the resolution of public grievances.

A meeting chaired by Financial Services Secretary M Nagaraju was held in which complainants, PSBs, public sector insurance companies (PSICs) and regulators participated.

The meeting, aimed to assess the quality of grievance redressal, reviewed 20 randomly selected public grievances resolved by PSBs and insurance companies to assess resolution quality, the finance ministry said in a statement.

At the outset, the Secretary reiterated the Prime Minister's direction given in the Pragati meeting held on December 26, that all the Senior officers at the level of Chairman/ MD/ ED of PSBs/PSICs should review at least 20 cases to monitor quality of resolution of the resolved grievances every month.

During the review meeting, he observed that the majority of customers raised complaints due to genuine grievances against an organisation, and stressed that customer satisfaction is at the heart of the grievance redressal mechanism.

He also stressed that any laxity/negligence in grievance redressal is against the ethos of customer service and diminishes the reputation/brand value of the organisation and directed that public grievances be addressed sincerely and positively in a time-bound manner.

Nagaraju also underlined the need for technical and IT solutions to minimise repetitive complaints and increase efficiency.