Though there has been a steady rise in the number of complaints pouring in with the banking ombudsman in Chandigarh, which has the jurisdiction over the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and UT Chandigarh. Sources in the ombudsman department say that the banks, both public and private sector are very active in redressing the complaints. |
The Ombudsman office, Chandigarh dealt with 568 complaints during the financial year 2004-05, while it was 507 in 2003-04. So far the nature of complaints is concerned, it was mainly related to the operation of deposit accounts, collection of instruments and complaints related to fraudulent withdrawal. |
However, this year 2005-06, the number of complaints is more than 1200. In the first quarter of this year, it has received about 450 complaints as compared to just 200 in the Oct-Dec quarter of 2005. The introduction of lodging online complaints has also received a tremendous response. |
The reasons attributed to this increase is mainly because of the introduction of new grounds of complaints early this year by RBI. |
These include non-adherence by the bank to the instructions of the RBI on ATM/Debit card operations or credit card operations, non disbursement or delay in accepting payment towards taxes, non-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension, forced closure of accounts without prior intimation to customers and non-adherence to the fair practices code as adopted by the bank. |
As for the comparison of complaints against the public sector and private sector banks, there has not been much of a difference in the flow of complaints between them. The number of complaints for the private banks stand at about 20 per cent of the total complaints and the rest is against the public sector banks. Sources however, say that this is mainly because the network of the public sector branches is much larger than that of the private banks. |
For instance, the complaints against deficiency of services in nationalised banks was 316 in last fiscal year but is 2003-04 it was 290. Out of the complaints against SBI and its subsidiary bank were 143 in the 2004-05, while in 2003-04 it was 112. |
In the private sector, there has been a rise in the number of complaints, but sources say that pendency of the complaints is very low. Banks in the Public sector have changed their way of dealing with the customers due to the increased competition from the private sector banks and due to the aware nature of customers in the region. |
The private banks are taking the decisions of the banking ombudsman as a benchmark in their future dealings with the customers and have developed a strong customer grievance mechanism. |
Most of the complaints are settled amicably without any further appeal to the Appellate Authority. While the majority of complaints have been from Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Amritsar, the number of complaints from Himachal Pradesh are also coming since January this year. |
A Senior official of a Public sector banks says that the people's expectations and awareness levels from the banks is very high nowadays. Public sector banks are trying to live up to the expectations of the customers, and gradually they succeeding also. |