RBI Governor asks lenders to improve customer grievance redressal

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank of India governor Sanjay Malhotra on Monday exhorted banks to provide services efficiently to customers and improve their grievance redressal. Speaking at the Annual Conference of the RBI Ombudsmen, Malhotra said that the number of complaints received under RBI's Integrated Ombudsman Scheme increased at a compounded average growth rate of almost 50 per cent per year over last two years to 9.34 lakh in 2023-24. “Not only are large number of complaints getting escalated, a large proportion of them – nearly 57 per cent of the maintainable complaints last year – required mediation or formal intervention by the RBI Ombudsmen. “With the rapidly growing customer base and expanding suite of products, the number of complaints may grow, if we do not get our act together.” Malhotra said that lenders are in the business of customer service and urged managing directors and chief executive officers, zonal and regional managers and the branch managers to spend some time every week, if not every day on grievance redressal. Many of the complaints like digital transaction disputes, unauthorized charges, or miscommunication frequently recur which are clear cut symptoms of underlying issues in the overall customer service framework of the regulated entities.