Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Friday issued a clear message to the banking and financial sector while announcing the decisions of the Monetary Policy Committee. The Governor asked banks and non-banking financial companies to keep customers paramount in their policies and functioning. The governor of the central bank asked him to improve customer services and also reduce complaints.
RBI MPC Governor has also given big relief in interest rates. The MPC unanimously decided to cut the repo rate by 25 basis points, which has now reduced it to 5.25%. The central bank has maintained its stance ‘neutral’.
Special grievance redressal campaign will start from January 1
RBI Governor made an important announcement on the increasing complaints from customers in banks and NBFCs. He said that a two-month special campaign will be launched from January 1 next year to resolve all the complaints pending with the RBI Ombudsman for more than a month.
Governor Malhotra said, “Due to the large number of complaints received in recent times, the pendency of cases with the RBI Ombudsman has increased. We are proposing to run a two-month campaign from January 1 with the aim of resolving all complaints that are pending for more than one month.”
Steps taken to improve customer service
The RBI Governor also highlighted the recent steps taken by the central bank to improve customer services. “We have taken several measures in this direction. Re-KYC, financial inclusion and ‘Your Capital, Your Rights’ campaign are some of the key initiatives taken in collaboration with other stakeholders,” he said.
He further informed that at the beginning of the year, RBI had also reviewed its ‘Citizen’s Charter’ and made the application process for all services online. Expressing satisfaction, the Governor said, “We are publishing the summary of disposal of various applications and pending cases on the 1st of every month. I am happy to state that more than 99.8% of the applications are being disposed of within the stipulated time frame.”
Annual report reveals, 13.55% increase in complaints
The ‘Integrated Ombudsman Scheme Annual Report’ (FY 2024-25) released by the RBI earlier this week notes a significant increase in consumer complaints. According to the report, 13.34 lakh complaints were registered during the financial year 2024-25. This is 13.55% more than the previous financial year (2023-24). Loans and advances were the largest source of consumer complaints, accounting for 29.25% of total complaints.
Credit card related complaints saw a huge increase of 20.04%, making it the second largest complaint category. Complaints related to mobile and electronic banking declined by 12.74%, indicating either improved system efficiency or changing consumer behavior. The share of banks in the total complaints was 81.53%, while the share of NBFCs was 14.80%. The report also highlights the growing scope of digital complaints, improvement in settlement efficiency, and growing concerns over loan, credit card and digital frauds.
