Why you can bank on the ombudsman

Bank customers often find that the bank’s employees – be it the branch manager or even the customer care executives – don’t accord enough importance to their grievances. If you have also felt the same, you should consider other options. For one, if the bank’s initial touch points fail to give you an appropriate response, you can ring up its nodal officer (www.iba.org.in/nodallist.asp). If you hit a wall here too, you can knock on the doors of the Banking Ombudsman, set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to give bank customers a fair hearing . Before approaching the Ombudsman, however, you need to acquaint yourself with the procedural details. In the Banking Ombudsman Report for 2009-10, put up on the banking regulator’s website, RBI has put up a detailed list of the most common complaints that are made.

Here’s a snapshot of three such categories to understand the nature of complaints that can be addressed by the Ombudsman:

Credit cards

While the number of complaints relating to credit cards has come down marginally compared to last year, they still comprise around 24% of the total complaints received this year. However, this number also includes debit and ATM cards. According to the report , the complaints cover issues like offering unsolicited credit cards and insurance policies (and recovering of premium charges subsequently), charging an annual fee despite being offered a ‘free’ card, disputes over wrong billing, non-settlement of insurance claims after the demise of the card holder, abusive calls, wrong debits to account and failure of withdrawal transactions at the ATMs. The report also remarks that poor response mechanism at the credit card issuing companies also continues to be a constant source of grievances. ‘Simply put, this is the issue of non-transparency and mis-selling ,’ it states. “At our centre, we have come across several cases where the customers have not received the credit card statements on time. In some cases, it has reached them only after the expiry of the due date, resulting in levy of late payment charges,” says VN Kulkarni, chief credit counsellor, Bank of India-backed Abhay Credit Counselling Centre. At your end, you would do well to be wary of any settlement made over the phone. That is, if you are entering into any compromise settlement for credit card dues, you would be better off procuring a written confirmation and ‘no dues’ certificate from the bank or the card issuer.

Violating code of commitment

All banks have agreed to a code a commitment to customers devised by the Indian Banks’ Association . The code is available in the branch of every bank. Despite this, the complaints of banks violating the code account for nearly 15% of the total. ‘This points to the lack of sensitivity, transparency and need for improved MITC (most important terms and conditions ) at the point-of-sales ,’ says the report. For instance, banks are required to compensate customers as per RBI norms in case of failed ATM transaction, even without the customer making a claim. Similarly, banks have also undertaken to regularise accounts that have been settled under compromise deals. “Many banks, however, are reluctant to do so,” says Madan Mohan, chief counsellor with the ICICI Banksupported Disha Financial Counselling . Instead of updating the borrower’s records appropriately with credit information companies like Cibil, they resort to the practice of reporting the waived amount as ‘written-off ’. This can adversely affect the borrower’s credit score, which is increasingly being relied upon by banks to sanction loans. ET, too, receives a large number of mails from readers accusing their banks of this misdemeanour. If you feel that your bank is guilty, it will qualify as a complaint that can be looked into by the Banking Ombudsman.

Other complaints

Grievances of disparate nature, forming close to 24% of the total complaints, have been clubbed under this category in the report. It encompasses non-adherence to prescribed working hours, refusal to accept or delay in accepting payments towards taxes, refusal to accept/delay in issuing or failure to service or delay in servicing or redemption of government securities, refusal to close or delay in closing of accounts and so on. This apart, service deficiency can also be a ground for taking action against the bank. The Banking Ombudsman report lists a case where a fraudulent funds transfer transaction was carried out through the net banking facility availed by a customer. The bank contended that the cause could have been his failure to safeguard the password. However , the Ombudsman was convinced that the incident had occurred due to violation of KYC norms by the bank. It was ordered to re-credit the complainant’s account with the amount fraudulently withdrawn together with interest for the period. Also, if a bank fails to adhere to its schedule of charges or furnish a satisfactory explanation regarding the calculation, you could have a case against it. In another case recorded in the report, the complainant had paid his card dues partially in 2000. However, the bank never sent any statement/notice thereafter but suddenly, raised a demand of . 108,000 in this connection . The Ombudsman felt that the charges were compared to the actual outstanding. The issue was taken up with the bank, which offered a final settlement for . 3,975.

Making a complaint

The procedure is fairly simple. If you have access to the internet, you can simply log on to the RBI website and use the form available to file your complaint. Alternatively , you can also e-mail the complaints directly to the Banking Ombudsman under whose jurisdiction your grievance falls. If you are not comfortable with the online option, you always have the option of sending your complaint by post. A list of postal and email addresses of the Ombudsman offices have been posted on the site (www.bankingombudsman.rbi.org.in). Upon receipt, the Ombudsman intimates the bank before making a decision. Based on the reply, which is to be submitted by the bank within 30 days, the Ombudsman takes a call on either accepting the version or directing the bank to change its stance. A conciliatory approach – where a joint hearing in the presence of both the complainant and the bank – could also be adopted to resolve the issue through mutual settlement. Typically , the time taken ranges from 2-3 months, with some cases taking longer than three months to be resolved.

When to file your complaint with the ombudsman

• You can lodge a complaint only after exhausting the option of approaching the concerned bank officials
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• The complaint must fall under the Ombudsman’s purview. Else, it will be rejected
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• Any complaint related to deficiency in service or failure to adhere to the code of commitment will be admitted
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• The Ombudsman will not take up your complaint if you have already approached other forums or courts
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• You must file your complaint within a year of receiving a reply from the bank or within 13 months of complaining to the bank
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• You can visit the website the RBI or mail it to the concerned Ombudsman’s office. You can also send your complaint by regular post

Source: EconomicTimes