MANU/RPRL/0022/2022

Ministry : Reserve Bank of India

Department/Board : Press Releases

Press Release No. : 2021-2022/1533

Date : 12.01.2022

RBI releases annual report of Ombudsman Schemes, 2020-2021

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the Annual Report of the Ombudsman Schemes for the year 2020-21 today, which has been prepared for the nine-month period, i.e., July 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, in alignment with the change in the Financial Year of RBI from 'July - June' to 'April - March' with effect from July 1, 2020. The Annual Report covers the activities under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006 (BOS), the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies, 2018 (OSNBFC) and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions, 2019 (OSDT), major developments and the way forward in the area of consumer protection. Some highlights from the Annual Report are as follows:

A. Activities under BOS, OSNBFC and OSDT

i. The volume of complaints received under all the three Ombudsman Schemes increased by 22.27 percent on an annualized basis and stood at 3,03,107 during the reported period.

ii. The BOS accounted for 90.13 percent of total complaints (i.e. 2,73,204) received under the three Ombudsman Schemes. The number of complaints received under OSNBFC and OSDT stood at 8.89 percent and 0.98 percent respectively, of the total number of complaints.

iii. The major areas of complaints under the BOS pertained to (a) ATM/debit cards; (b) mobile/electronic banking; and (c) credit cards, which collectively accounted for 42.74 percent of the total number of complaints as compared to 44.65 percent in the previous year. Under the OSNBFC, major areas of complaints were (a) non-adherence to Fair Practices Code; (b) non-observance to RBI directions; and (c) levy of charges without prior notice, accounting for 75.32 percent of the complaints as compared to 63.23 percent in the previous year.

iv. The overall disposal rate improved to 96.59 percent from 92.52 percent in the previous year, despite higher volume of complaints, which can be attributed to the end-to-end digitization of complaint processing in CMS.

v. Of the maintainable complaints, 72.67 percent were reso........