| Delivering a special address at the Bancon 2005 in Kolkata, Reddy even challenged banks' "unequal bargaining powers" vis-a-vis customers and said such contracts cannot be legally enforceable. |
| "There have been several judgments relating to customer issues at consumer courts and forums. All the data would be collected by RBI's legal department and distributed among bankers with the objective of benefiting their customers," Reddy said. |
| He also referred to a recent Gujarat government circular mentioning on "Do's and Dont's" for bank's issuing credit cards and added that this would probably be replicated by other states. |
| "It is RBI's legal and moral responsibility to make credit affordable to all sections of the society at a reasonable price. I reaffirm this mandate. We are taking the 'customer service issue' very seriously," he pointed out. This made it abundantly clear that bankers can no longer get away by harassing customers and denying their rights. Citing an example of customer dissatisfaction, Reddy said, "Two Indian banks have been reported to have collected around Rs 100 crore on account of penalty charges from customers for not maintaining minimum balance. This questions the relationship between bankers and customers." The customer committee of banking board would look into the issue. |
| To streamline the procedures, the RBI will soon come up a new ombudsman scheme. "There has been informal discussion with the ministry regarding the new ombudsman scheme. The RBI would probably be funding the scheme so as it provides an unbiased judgment," Reddy added. Now banks bear the financial burden of the ombudsmen scheme. |
| To facilitate credit to the poorer section of the society, the RBI would come up with incentive schemes. "The RBI might provide special facility like forex business, ATMs, currency chests to those regional rural banks which have been doing well in providing and boosting credit to the poorer sections," Reddy said. |
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