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Complaints pertaining to ATM and debit card, related to failed transaction and cloning, tops the list of complaints from the region received by the banking ombudsman at Chandigarh, having jurisdiction over Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and three districts of Haryana (Panchkula, Ambala and Yamunanagar).
The ombudsman received 800 complaints in the financial year 2012-13 compared with 764 in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Speaking to Business Standard, banking ombudsman, R K Sood said, “During the year, there has not been much increase in the number of complaints regarding ATM and debit cards. Yet the maximum number of complaints were related to ATM transactions only. In 55 cases, a sum of Rs 17.75 lakh has been paid to the complainants. Besides, the banks have also reported to have paid by itself a substantial amount towards failed ATM transactions. A major bank reported to have paid around Rs 28.26 lakh in respect of 91 ATM transactions only.”
Overall, the ombudsman at Chandigarh received 3,955 complaints during 2012-13 against 3,521 complaints during the corresponding period of the previous year, an increase of 12 per cent.
Besides ATM and debit card complaints, the ombudsmane received other complaints too in 2012-13, of which failure to meet commitments made (non adherence to fair practices code as adopted by banks) formed a significant proportion(697). Pension related complaints(402), remittances(68) were also among complaints received. There has been a significant increase in first resort complaints as well.
The department received 861 complaints in 2012-13 compared with 436 in 2011-12. In these, the complainant approached the banking ombudsman directly without lodging their complaints with the banks. So these complaints were sent to the banks for resolution, advising the complainants that if they don’t get reply within a month from the bank, or they are not satisfied with the reply of the bank, they can approach the banking ombudsman again.
As far as bank-wise complaints were concerned, 35.44 per cent complaints were against SBI & associates, followed by other nationalised banks(34 per cent), new private sector banks(23 per cent ) and 2.9 per cent against foreign banks. Overall, the share of complaints of nationalised banks was 70.7 per cent, while it was 24.80 per cent in case of private banks.
Majority of the complaints were received from Punjab(46.48 per cent), followed by Himachal Pradesh (15.63 per cent), and 10.66 per cent from Chandigarh, which shows no change in the pattern of receipt of complaints from the region under jurisdiction.
