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Soon, customers will be able to get their grievances related to banking services redressed at the bank level itself. This follows the RBI directive asking banks to appoint an internal ombudsman.
If a customer is still dissatisfied with the solution provided by the internal ombudsman, he/she can take it up with the central bank’s banking ombudsman.
Service quality In a bid to beef up customer service quality and meet the RBI’s directive, banks are gearing up to appoint their respective internal chief customer service officer (CCSO).Earlier this month, the RBI advised all public sector banks and some private and foreign banks to appoint an internal ombudsman.
At present only 11 banks, including Punjab National Bank, Union Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, Allahabad Bank, Dena Bank and Corporation Bank, have an internal ombudsman each.
Keen to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolving customer complaints in banks, the RBI suggested that the officer appointed should not have worked in the bank in which he/she is appointed as CCSO.
Union Bank, which appointed such an ombudsman under the position of ‘Chief Customer Service Officer’ in August 2013, said the basic role of the CCCO is that of an arbitrator between the customer and bank. A Union Bank official, who has been appointed from Bank of Baroda, said: “We have such a position for over 18 months now. A customer’s first touch point of complaint is the bank’s branch manager. In case of failure of the grievance redressal, the customer can approach the Regional head, then the Field General Manager or the Zonal Manager and then the chief grievance officer at our bank’s central office. Hence, before approaching the RBI, we aim to resolve customer issues.”.
While all public sector banks will have to appoint a Chief Customer Service Officer, the private sector and foreign banks that have been told to appoint such officers (or internal ombudsman) are: ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank and HSBC, the banking regulator said.
Among private banks, ICICI Bank has, for the seven years, a retired public sector bank chairman as its internal ombudsman. An Axis Bank spokesperson said, “While the operational guidelines are yet to be received from the RBI, the matter is being reviewed internally and the bank will commence the process of identifying and appointing an internal ombudsman shortly. The bank, presently, has a robust grievance redressal mechanism for addressing customer grievances with specified timelines and escalation levels.”
Guidelines soon
On similar lines, Karthi Marshan, Senior EVP, Head - Group Marketing & Principal Nodal Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said, “We are in the process of appointing an Internal Ombudsman. The bank’s Grievance Redressal Policy is available on its website.”
HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank did not offer comments.
In 1995, the RBI had introduced the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) free of cost to provide an expeditious and inexpensive forum to bank customers for addressing their complaints relating to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, regional rural banks and scheduled primary co-operative banks.
The RBI said it will shortly issue detailed operational guidelines to banks on the issue of appointing internal ombudsmen.
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