A Centralized Receipt and Processing Center (CRPC) has been set up for centralized management and initial processing of all complaint receipts and moving towards ‘One Nation – One Jurisdiction’ approach to offer ease of operation for handling customer complaints .
The Ombudsman is an appellate body where a customer can lodge a complaint if the financial institution fails to resolve the complaint within 30 days. Even When Customers Are Not Satisfied oath They may approach the Ombudsman for an offer or clarification given by the financial institution.
Here’s a look at how the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme will work, according to the PMO’s press release.
How will this plan work?
- The central theme of the scheme is ‘One Nation-One Lokpal’.
- It will have a portal, an email and an address for the customers to register their complaints
- There will be a single reference point for customers to register their complaints, submit documents, track status and provide feedback.
- A multilingual toll-free number will provide all relevant information regarding grievance redressal and assistance in lodging complaints.
How are complaints redressed now?
The Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) was launched in 1995. It has undergone five amendments and is also the basis for the launch of the Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (OSNBFCs) in 2018 and the Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions (OSDT) in 2019. The present Integrated Plan was prepared on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee constituted by RBI to review the Ombudsman Schemes.
An internal working group with 10 members, including eight ombudsmen, one each from the Legal Department and the Department of Consumer Education and Protection (CEPD), was constituted to conduct a detailed review of the RBI’s Ombudsman schemes. The committee has made some key recommendations, most notably the convergence of the existing Ombudsman Schemes – BOS (revised by 1st July, 2017), OSNBFC, 2018 and OSDT, 2019 – into a unified “RBI Ombudsman Scheme”. ,
In order to increase transparency and consumer awareness, it had suggested to broaden the base of complaints and include only a detailed ‘negative’ or ‘exclusion’ list for rejection of complaint.
The time taken for resolution of complaints was also a matter of concern for the committee, which recommended reducing the turnaround time (TAT) to 30 days for grievance redressal in a phased manner over a period of two years.