Data Shows Banks Getting Friendlier: 66 Per Cent Of Complaints Resolved In FY18, Rejection Rate Falls To 34 Per Cent

In an indication of the banking sector becoming more customer friendly, recent Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data shows that there is a marked rise in mutual settlement of complaints compared to the past two years, reports Mint.

Also noticeable is the corresponding decline in the number of complaint rejections.

65.82 per cent of the total number of ‘maintainable’ complaints were disposed off by mutual settlement in 2017-18, up from 42.43 per cent in 2016-17 and 35.93 per cent in 2015-16.

Also, the rejection rate of ‘maintainable’ complaints fell correspondingly over the same period from 63.65 per cent in 2015-16 to 33.82 per cent in 2017-18. However, continuing the trend of the previous year, the Ombudsman rejected nearly half the complaints it received as non maintainable.

Maintainable Complaints are those that fall under the Ombudsman Scheme, 2006 with specified grounds for complaints. The RBI set up the scheme to hear complaints by customers regarding the banking services.

The major grounds of complaints received during the year were non-observance of fair practices code (22.1 per cent), ATM and debit card issues (15.1 per cent), credit card complaints (7.7 per cent), failure to meet commitments (6.8 per cent) and mobile and electronic banking (5.2 per cent).

The highest number of complaints were received against State Bank of India (46,994) followed by HDFC Bank at 12,044 and ICICI Bank at 10,465.