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The highest number of complaints were against State Bank of India (SBI) and its associate banks during the period, with around 26.4% of the total complaints being filed against these banks. The Nationalised Banks including the Chennai-based IOB and Indian Bank has accounted to around 35.94% of the total complaints.
Speaking to reporters about the annual report of its activities in the region for the year 2013-14, he said that his office has handled 9428 complaints including the 8,775 complaints received this year and the backlog from last year. During 2012-13, it received around 7255 complaints, which was an increase of 9.69%.
"Tamil Nadu has the highest number of maintainable complaints filed, which shows that there is more awareness among the customers in this part of the country," said Chiranjeevi. Of the 9428 complaints handled, 6,945 complaints were maintainable while 2,242 were non-maintainable.
Besides, while the mandate is that the complaint should be disposed within six months from receiving, the Office in Tamil Nadu was able to bring down the disposal period to one month. The area of operations Office of the Banking Ombudsman in Chennai includes Tamil Nadu, Union Territories of Pudducherry (except Mahe Region) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
During 2013-14, around 6.51% of the total complaints received were from old private sector banks while around 19.35% were from the new private sector Banks. Around 7.25% complaints were against Foreign Banks while the complaints against Regional Rural Banks were around 0.24%,
Of the total complaints received during the year, SBI alone has seen around 1953 complaints. Last year, around 27% of the complaints were against SBI and associate banks. according to the Annual Report. During the year, 739 complaints were received against Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) while it was 639 last year, 910 against Indian Bank, while it was 573 last year and 682 against ICICI Bank, which was 518 during the previous fiscal year, he said.
"We have around 241 complaints pending as of now, but which are filed in less than a month. No complaint is pending beyond one month and Tamil Nadu would be the first in disposing cases in short time," he added.
Almost 22.67% of the total complaints were on failure to meet commitments, non-observance of fair practices code and related issues, while complaints related to loans and advances were around 21.93% and ATM, Credit and Debit Cards related complaints were around 21.73%.
The Banking Ombudsman has also passed two awards, one against Central Bank and Syndicate Bank. However, overall the Banks have co-operated to settle the disputes at the earliest, he said.
