Banking ombudsman sees an uptick in complaints by 21% in FY16, says RBI

The number of consumer complaints received against lenders to Banking Ombudsman offices of Reserve Bank of India has increased by 21% in 2015-16 to 1,02,894.

The report stated that it is for the first time that the complaint received by Banking Ombudsman has crossed the one lakh mark, since its inception.

The maximum numbers of complaints were received by public sector banks with 35% of the complaints regarding these lenders, followed by 29% regarding State Bank of India and its associates. The private sector banks received 26% of the complaints and 3% against foreign banks.

Complaints with respect to the failure to meet commitments, non-observance of fair practices code topped the list with 33.9% of the complaints received in this regard. This was followed by ATM/debit card complaints and this, in turn, was followed by credit card complaints which comprised 8.49% of complaints received. The number of complaints pending at the end of 2015-16 was 5.4% of the total complaints received that year, said the report.

"The BO Scheme report reveals that consumer education in general and awareness about Banking Ombudsman Scheme, in particular, is sub-optimal. This fact has been reiterated in the year under review too, as 73% of complaints have been received from Metro and Urban centres and 50% of the complaints are non-maintainable under the Scheme," said S S Mundra, Deputy Governor, RBI.