Complaints with banking ombudsman increased by 25%

RBI released Annual Report of Banking Ombudsman Scheme for the year 2017-18. Key highlights of the report are :

·         Total complaints received by Banking Ombudsman (BO) in 2017-18 : 163590 [Increased from 130987 during 2016-17 and 102894 during 2015-16]. 24.9% increase in complaints over previous year.

·         Highest complaints (46994) received against State Bank of India followed by HDFC Bank (12044) and ICICI Bank (10465).

·         Highest complaints in New Delhi.

·         North Zone has highest share [44%] in number of complaints.

·         50% complaints are from Urban area and 27% from Metropolitan.

·         Disposal rate of complaints by BO 96.5% as compared to 92.0% in the previous year.

·         Major grounds of complaints : Non-observance of fair practices code (22.1%), ATM and debit card issues (15.1%), credit card issues (7.7%), failure to meet commitments (6.8%), mobile and electronic banking (5.2%).

·         65.8% of maintainable complaints were resolved by agreement i.e., through mediation.

·         148 Awards were issued by 12 out of the 21 Banking Ombudsman in 2017-18 as compared to 31 Awards issued in the previous year.

·         The Appellate Authority received 125 Appeals in the year 2017-18 as compared to 15 Appeals in the previous year.

·         The average cost of handling a complaint came down from ₹ 3,626/- in 2016-17 to ₹3,504/- in 2017-18 due to increase in efficiency and economies of scale.