Issues related to cards, net banking top complaint areas at OBO: RBI report

Issues related to ATM/debit cards and mobile/electronic banking were the top grounds of complaints received at the Office of Banking Ombudsman (OBO) during April 1 to November 11, 2021, an RBI report said on Wednesday.

The volume of complaints received under the Ombudsman Schemes/Consumer Education and Protection Cells during 2021-22 increased by 9.39 per cent over the previous year and stood at 4,18,184, it said.

Of these, 3,04,496 complaints were handled by the 22 Offices of RBI Ombudsman (ORBIOs), including the complaints received under the three erstwhile Ombudsman Schemes till November 11, 2021.

Complaints related to ATM/ debit cards were the highest at 14.65 per cent of the total, followed by mobile/ electronic banking at 13.64 per cent.

Around 90 per cent of the total complaints were received through digital modes, including on the online Complaint Management System (CMS) portal, email, and Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS).

Majority 66.11 per cent of the maintainable complaints were resolved through mutual settlement/conciliation/mediation, it said.

The report further said the rate of disposal of complaints by ombudsmen improved to 97.97 per cent in 2021-22 from 96.59 per cent in 2020-21.

Under the RBI-OS, 2021, following the 'One Nation, One Ombudsman' principle, the territorial jurisdictions for the ORBIOs have been abrogated, and complaints are assigned to all the ORBIOs by the CMS.

Grounds of complaint covered under the RBIOS have also been expanded to cover all complaints involving 'deficiency of service', which has been defined under the scheme, it said, adding the CMS was upgraded to align with the requirements under RB-IOS, 2021 to improve its overall efficiency.

The coverage of RBIOS was extended to include the non-scheduled Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) with a deposit size of Rs 50 crore or above as at the end of previous Financial Year. Credit Information Companies (CICs) were brought under RBI-IOS with effect from September 1, 2022.

Between November 12 and March 31, 2022, a total of 1,86,268 complaints were received under the RBI-OS.

The Centralised Receipt and Processing Center (CRPC) at RBI, Chandigarh handled the preliminary scrutiny of the complaints received through email/physical mode (1,49,419 complaints) and closed 1,07,821 complaints as non-complaints/ non-maintainable complaints during the period.

Under the erstwhile three Schemes and the RB-IOS, it said, during the period April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, total number of complaints received at the ORBIOs and the CRPC stood at 4,18,184, showing an increase of 9.39 per cent over last year.

Of these, 3,04,496 complaints were handled by the 22 ORBIOs. The overall disposal rate for the year at the ORBIOs stood at 97.97 per cent.

Talking about other developments during the year, the report said, a Nationwide Customer Satisfaction Survey to assess the satisfaction level of the complainants who had approached the RBIOs for redressal of their grievances was undertaken through a third-party agency, which indicated the overall satisfaction level of the complainants was at 59.55 per cent.

The annual Root Cause Analysis for the year 2022 was conducted and necessary action initiated based on the causes identified, it added.