‘65% increase in complaints received under three Ombudsman Schemes in 2019-20’

There was an increase of nearly 65 per cent in the receipt of complaints under the three Ombudsman Schemes of the Reserve Bank of India in 2019-20, and a disposal rate of over 92 per cent was achieved.

In 2019-20, a total of 3,30,543 complaints were received under the three schemes, registering a growth of 64.97 per cent, compared to 2,00,362 complaints in 2018-19, according to the Annual Report on the RBI Ombudsman Scheme.

Complaints under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme increased by 57.54 per cent year-on-year with a total of 3.08 lakh complaints with those relating to ATM and debit cards and mobile and electronic banking being the major grounds of complaints in 2019-20.

“Complaints related to ATM/ Debit Cards and Mobile/ Electronic banking overtook those pertaining to non-observance of Fair Practices Code (FPC) as the major grounds of complaints during the year,” said the report for the period July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020.

Their share in the total complaints received in 2019-20 was 21.97 per cent and 13.38 per cent, respectively, while the share of complaints relating to non-observance of FPC stood at 11.73 per cent, it said. The figures against these grounds during the previous year were 18.65 per cent, 7.55 per cent and 19.17 per cent, respectively.

Complaints received on grounds relating to credit cards, failure to meet commitments, levy of charges without notice, loans and advances and non-adherence to the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) Codes increased this year compared to the previous year, the report said.

Meanwhile, the receipt of complaints at the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies gained momentum with 19,432 complaints received during 2019-20 compared to 3,991 in 2018-19, an increase of 386.89 per cent, the report said.

Non-adherence to FPC constituted 36.29 per cent of the complaints received, followed by non-observance of RBI directions (18.56 per cent), lack of transparency in contract/loan agreement (8.77 per cent) and levy of charges without notice (8.38 per cent).

The Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions received 2,481 complaints in 2019-20 against 470 in the five months of operation during 2018-19, the report said.

Non-adherence to RBI and System Provider instructions on payment transactions through Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), Bharat Quick Response (QR) Code with 43.89 per cent of complaints, was the major ground of complaints.

The RBI said that as announced in the Monetary Policy Statement on February 5, the three Ombudsman Schemes are being merged and integrated into a single scheme, which will be rolled out starting from June 2021. “The capabilities of the CMS will be enhanced for more efficient grievance redress,” it further said, adding that a framework for consumer education will be put in place to meet the needs arising from increased digitalisation in the banking space.