How to complain against the bank in RBI (How Banking Ombudsman scheme changed and how to deal with complaints against banks?)
A lot of our readers have been complaining that banks ask for unnecessary things while opening Sukanya Samriddhi Account. Some of them have even complain that they are not ready to transfer their accounts in different banks. There are numerous things which you think that bank is not doing correctly and you wish a place where you can make an official complaint. So if you are such a person then this the right place for you. You can lock all your complaints against bank using “Banking Ombudsman”. Rest of the articles explains how you can exercise this feature.
Certain changes have been incorporated in the revision procedure that took place during 2006, when Reserve bank of India launched some new areas of complaints about the customers. It includes deficiencies in not providing adequate service by the sales agents, credit card issues, unnecessary levying charges without any prior information, and non-adherence to some rules that are being practiced by the individual banking organizations.
What are the categories of complaint considered eligible?
- Delay or failure to issue any drafts, cheques or pay orders by the bank can be lodged as a complaint.
- The bank should be held liable for closing any bank account with the concern of the account holder.
- Delay closing any of the working bank accounts.
- Indulgence into any practice that is not stated by the bank authorities.
- For inward remittances or payment of cheque or money order, the bank should not delay in paying the money.
- In case of any wrong information provided by the bank, the account holder should not be accountable for any kind of financial loss.
- In the case of non-adherence to the declared banking hours.
- As per the rules set by the Reserve bank or the Government, the bank should not refuse or delay for any kind of tax payments.
- The situation could be such that bank refuses to accept any small denominations on a sudden note.
- The bank should not violate any other of the rules or regulations that have been set up by the Reserve bank of India.
- The bank cannot close any deposit account without due notice or without the permission of the account holder.
- Any kind of export proceedings, export bills, or other collection of bills should not be delayed by the bank. Otherwise, complaints can be lodged about the wrong operations of the bank.
How to file for a complaint?
Before the person makes a complaint to the higher authorities of the bank, they have to submit a written complaint about the bank. In addition, only if the following conditions take place, the complaint would be accepted.
- In case the bank refuses to give any reply to any complaint after a month of receiving the same.
- In case the bank has refused to accept the complaint mentioned.
- The filed complaint would not be considered by ombudsman in case the person fails to turn up to the bank before one year or 13 months from its initial complaint date.
- In case the person who has filed the complaint is not happy with the response of the bank, then the person can approach banking ombudsman.
You have to file the complaint at the ombudsman office which works along with the brank of the bank located at your place. The types of grievances that have been mentioned above can be filed with ombudsman. You can file for the same through a written letter, an email or lodging a complaint via the RBI website. Also, make sure that you are charged anything for the filing of the complaints.
According to the ombudsman scheme, actual loss amount or a compensation of Rs. 10 lakh would be given to the customer. In such a case, the ombudsman can choose to reward the customer on account of agony and harassment that he or she has to bear for the careless handling of the bank. As of now, this rule is only applicable in case of complaints pertaining only to credit card operations.
In case any of these above-mentioned situations take place, then the complaint would be eligible and it can be directed to the authorized representative of the bank and further it would be expected that the authorities would do the needful. A written complaint should be submitted and it should be attested by the representative. In addition to this, some information needs to be necessarily included in the complaint and they are as follows.
- The facts that have given rise to the complaint.
- The relief that is expected from such a situation.
- Full details such as name and address of the person who has filed the complaint.
- Nature and the degree of loss of the person.
- The bank and branch details against which the complaint has been lodged.
Banking Ombudsman rules
Introduced under Section 35 A of banking rules act, 1949, this scheme has been implemented via RBI from 1995. The main aim of the scheme is to safeguard the customers from any unfair means of practice in the banking sector. All the banks are covered and they have been ordered to follow the rules and regulations that have been set by this banking scheme. As of now 15 ombudsman offices are avail and details of the same are registered with RBI. When any customer files any complaint, he or she should be completely aware of all rules pertaining to the scheme. It would help them adequately in case they are subjected to wrong actions or unfair means in the banking sector.After reviewing the compliant, the ombudsman would try to settle the issues among the parties.
Such ordeals of harassment are common and one such incident took place with Laxmi Bhardarkar living in Mumbai. Pertaining to the case, some of the steps have been mentioned in the following part about how to step forward in placing the complaint to the bank.
- Most of the banks have their grievance cell and therefore, customers can visit the official website of the bank in order to get in touch with the officials and sort out the issue. In addition, a toll-free number is available for every bank and branches of the bank. The customers can call the same to lodge the complaint. Following this, a complaint ID would be given to the customer and further proceedings would be started. At least, the customers should wait for a period of 30 days in order to receive any proper solution from the bank authorities.
- In case, the customer fails to receive any response from the banking authority even after a month, then they can approach the scheme mentioned above.
- You have to lodge the complaint by following some rules and regulations that have been set up by the scheme.
The Final Words
After following the above illustrated steps, there are chances of mutual settlement with the bank as has been stated by the banking scheme. In case, the person who has filed for the complaint does not receive any response even after 30 days, then the person can seek help from higher authorities to get the necessary response.
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