The Reserve Bank of India in the month of January 2013 has set up a working group in order to evaluate and make improvements in the current grievance redressal mechanism for bank customers. The working group has been constituted by the RBI to review, update, and revise the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS), 2006.
As per the RBI report of the BOS 2011-12, the banking ombudsman™s office of the RBI received around 72889 complaints, in the financial Year 2011-12. It disposed off 94% customer complaints. It was ascertained that approximately one-fourth of the total complaints were attributed to banks™ failures to meet commitments and non-observance of fair practices code.
It was also observed that the Banking Ombudsman had received 14492 card related complaints in the reporting year. Unsolicited cards and charging of annual fee in spite of being offered ˜free™ card formed the basis of some of the complaints against the banks.
Presently, there are 15 Banking Ombudsmen who have unambiguous jurisdiction covering 29 States and 7 Union Territories in India.
