Credit card woes topped the complaints chart in 2007-08 as hefty interest burden of borrowers and recovery by banks emerged as flashpoints for dispute between banks and their customers.
The 15 offices of the Banking Ombudsman across the country received 47,887 complaints in 2007-08 as against 38,638 in the previous financial year, according to a Reserve Bank of India report.
Credit card complaints were followed by those related to banks' failure to keep their commitments, while complaints related to deposit accounts, remittances and loans and advances accounted for other problems of the customers.
The chart also included a significant number of complaints related to pension, especially for public sector banks. Most of the complaints about direct-selling agents (DSA) focused on new private sector banks.
In recent years, RBI has placed special emphasis on improving the customer service and expanding the banking outreach to wider sections of the society. It has initiated several steps, including enhancing customer protection and disclosure, code of ethics and grievance redressal.
All the complaints were collated and categorised into ten broad heads, namely, deposit accounts, remittances, credit cards, loans/advances, charges without prior notice, pension, failure on commitments made, DSAs, notes and coins and others.
Based on regions, maximum complaints during the year under review were received from New Delhi, which surpassed Mumbai as the centre with the largest number of complaints. The number of complaints received in Chennai, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata and Ahmedabad also increased sharply during the same year.
Under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, banks and their customers can appeal to the Appellate Authority against the decisions given by the Banking Ombudsman. During 2007-08, 186 such appeals were received, which include 17 appeals against awards and 169 against decisions of the BO.
RBI conducted a customers' survey in four districts of Tamil Nadu. It evaluated the progress for improvement of services by various bank groups. The analysis showed that courtesy and friendliness extended by banks' staff in rural centres were rated better compared with those in other centres.
