Kolkata: As many as 93 out of every 100 complaints lodged by bank customers are against private banks and foreign banking groups. If that surprises you, well that’s what the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revealed in its annual report of the banking ombudsman scheme.
Together, private banks and foreign banks account for less than 30% of the total banking business in the country. RBI data shows that 63% of the total customer complaints in 2007-08 were against new generation private banks.
New private banks collectively received 7.40 lakh complaints between April 2007 and March 2008 as compared with 8.29 lakh complaints in the corresponding period of 2006-07. Overall, banks received 11.79 lakh complaints in 2007-08. The number is marginally lower than preceding fiscal’s 12.4 lakh.
Complaints made directly to the ombudsman against different banks, however, rose 24% to 47,887 in 2007-08 from 38,638 in 2006-07. Nearly 89% of the total complaints received in 2007-08 have been settled and only 11% have been carried forward to the current fiscal.
The ombudsman scheme, which was started in 1995, provides a window to customers for resolution of complaints relating to banking services. According to RBI, the experiment so far is proving to be fruitful. Yet, the banking regulator observes that bankers need to deal with customers in a more transparent manner, particularly in creating awareness about the conditions of their services. Customer complaints against banks range from credit card billing related issues to misrepresentation and misleading information provided by direct selling agents. It also includes complaints on remittances and general customer services.
Last year, credit cards related issues accounted for the majority of the complaints. The issues here range from unsolicited cards to unsolicited insurance policy and recovery of premium charges to disputes over wrong billing. So far as ATM transactions are concerned, the issues involved alleged short payment or non-receipt of cash by customers. These complaints were primarily against public sector banks which do not have close circuit TVs installed at their automated teller machines.
