RBI receives over 76,000 complaints against banks-Times of India
NAGPUR: The service sector is fast growing in the country, especially with the growth of banking, which underwent a major revolution with the advent of ATMs and online services. On the flip side, complaints from customers regarding deficiencies in services being provided by the banks are also rising. An RTI query revealed that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received a whopping 76,061 complaints last fiscal ending March 31.
The reply to a query by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar informed that offices of 15 ombudsmen appointed by the apex banks received these complaints within a year. Chief information officer with RBI DG Kale provided a big list of banks that included nationalized, cooperative and private ones, against which the complaints were lodged at ombudsmen offices mostly located in the state capitals.
The Banking Ombudsmen Scheme that covers all these was introduced under Section 35A of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, by the apex bank and came into effect from 1995. It offers an inexpensive forum to customers for redressing their grievances against deficiencies in banking services, the veteran RTI activist informed.
The list of banks having complaints is expectedly led by the banking behemoth - State Bank of India - with over 21,000 cases against it. It was distantly followed by two leading private banks - ICICI with 5,209 and HDFC with 5,015 complaints. A couple of city-based cooperative banks - Nagpur Nagrik Sahakari with nine complaints and Shikshak Sahakari with two - also featured in the list. Additionally, international banks like Standard Chartered (3,717), Abu Dhabi Commercial (1), Barclays (104), Deutshe (Asia) (67), HSBC (308), Oman International (3), and Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi (1) also found their names in the list.
Kolarkar added that citizens could lodge complaints in various cases of deficiencies in services. It included default or delay in cheque and draft collection/issuance, violating RBI's directives, levying of charges without prior notice, refusal to open savings accounts, non-disbursement or delay in pension, closure of accounts without notice, and delays in sanctioning/disbursement of the loans. He said citizens could lodged complaints with the ombudsmen but only after raising the issue in writing with the bank concerned. It could be done by either writing to the ombudsman office or by visiting the RBI website, he added.
Some leading banks against which complaints
were lodged:
State Bank of India - 21,018
ICICI Bank - 5,209
HDFC Bank - 5,015
Orissa Gramya Bank - 4,109
Standard Chartered Bank - 3,717
Punjab National Bank - 3,560
Axis Bank - 3,028
Bank of Baroda - 2,295
Canara Bank - 1,984
Union Bank of India - 1,957
Bank of India - 1,933
Central Bank of India - 1,631
Indian Overseas bank - 1,361
Link Times of India
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