The Banking Ombudsmen Scheme, 2006 came into effect from January 1, 2006. It is a quasi judicial authority, and has powers to regulate both bank and its customer for settlement of complaints.

RBI appoints a senior official to redress complaints of customers against any deficiency in banking services. All scheduled commercial banks, regional rural banks and scheduled primary co-operative banks are covered under the scheme.

Grounds of Complaints

The Banking Ombudsman can receive and consider any complaint relating to the following deficiency in banking services (including internet banking):

• Non-payment or inordinate delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills etc.;
• Non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of small denomination notes tendered for any purpose, and for charging of commission in respect thereof;
• Non-payment or delay in payment of inward remittances ;
• Failure to issue or delay in issue of drafts, pay orders or bankers’ cheques;
• Non-adherence to prescribed working hours ;
• Failure to provide or delay in providing a banking facility promised in writing by a bank or its direct selling agents;
• Delays, non-credit of proceeds to parties accounts, non-payment of deposit or non-observance of the Reserve Bank directives, if any, applicable to rate of interest on deposits in any savings,current or other account maintained with a bank ;
• Complaints from Non-Resident Indians having accounts in India in relation to their remittances from abroad, deposits and other bank-related matters;
• Refusal to open deposit accounts without any valid reason for refusal;
• Levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer;
• Non-adherence by the bank or its subsidiaries to the instructions of Reserve Bank on ATM/Debit card operations or credit card operations;
• Non-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension (to the extent the grievance can be attributed to the action on the part of the bank concerned, but not with regard to its employees);
• Refusal to accept or delay in accepting payment towards taxes, as required by Reserve Bank/Government;
• Refusal to issue or delay in issuing, or failure to service or delay in servicing or redemption of Government securities;
• Forced closure of deposit accounts without due notice or without sufficient reason;
• Refusal to close or delay in closing the accounts;
• Non-adherence to the fair practices code as adopted by the bank or non-adherence to the provisions of the Code of Bank s Commitments to Customers issued by Banking Codes and Standards Board of India and as adopted by the bank.

A customer can also lodge a complaint on the following grounds of deficiency in service with respect to loans and advances

• Non-observance of Reserve Bank Directives on interest rates;
• Delays in sanction, disbursement or non-observance of prescribed time schedule for disposal of loan applications;
• Non-acceptance of application for loans without furnishing valid reasons to the applicant

Anyone can file a complaint before the Banking Ombudsman if the bank has not replied within a period of one month after receiving complaint or the bank rejects the complaint, or if you are not satisfied with the reply given by bank.

One can file a compliant by writing on the plain paper or can file it online at https://secweb.rbi.org.in/BO/compltindex.htm or by sending the e-mail. However, a form or prescribed format is not necessary.

GoodReturns.in