Issue of unsolicited cards, non-settlement of insurance claims after the demise of a card holder, wrong debits to account and non-dispensation of cash from ATMs formed a major portion of the debit card related complaints, according to the RBI Banking ombudsman's annual report released on Thursday.
Issue of unsolicited cards, non-settlement of insurance claims after the demise of a card holder, wrong debits to account and non-dispensation of cash from ATMs formed a major portion of the debit card related complaints, according to the RBI Banking ombudsman's annual report released on Thursday.
Out of the 18,474 card-related complaints, 10,714 complaints were pertaining to ATM/debit cards. Card related complaints comprised 24.1% of the total complaints and formed the second largest category of complaints. About 93% of the total 76,573 complaints received were from individual bank customers.
State Bank of India and its associates received the largest amount of complaints. While public sector banks accounted for 64% of the total complaints received, private sector banks formed 22% whereas foreign banks received 6.5% of total complaints.
RBI annual report said, "Reasons for these card-related complaints are issue of unsolicited cards, sale of unsolicited insurance policies and recovery of premium, charging of annual fees in spite of being offered as 'free' card, authorisation of loans over phone, wrong billing, settlement offers conveyed telephonically, non-settlement of insurance claims after the demise of the card holder, exorbitant charges, wrong debits to account, nondispensation or short dispensation of cash from ATM."
During the year 2013-14, there has been an increase of 8.55% in the number of complaints received over the previous year. Introduction of variety of banking products and services, increasing customer base coupled with rise in awareness about the grievance redress mechanism under the BOS 2006 are some of the reasons for the increase in number of complaints received at the offices of banking ombudsman or OBOs.
With 11,045 complaints, New Delhi OBO tops the list in number of complaints received. Four metros, New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, and one non-metro centre Kanpur put together, accounted for 56% of the total complaints received by the ombudsman.
The source of complaints remained heavily skewed towards customers from metro and urban areas. This trend for the current year is same as the previous year, the annual report said. Complaints from urban and metro areas accounted for about 71% of the total complaints received.
This shows that the spread of the BOS is still confined to urban and metro areas. Year on year basis, there is a marginal increase of 1% in number of complaints received from rural areas.
Complaints pertaining to failure in meeting commitments, non-observance of fair practices code taken together constituted largest category of complaints with 26.6% of the complaints received. A large number of complaints in this category indicate the lack of awareness about these codes amongst bank staff as also the customers. It also reveals the lack of bank's commitment to adhere to agreed terms & conditions. There is a need for the banks to devote special attention to this aspect and provide appropriate training to their front level staff regarding these codes.
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