The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : “Nationalised banks top in complaints’ list”

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 20, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

“Nationalised banks top in complaints’ list”

K.N. Murali Sankar

VIJAYAWADA: Customers’ complaints against nationalised banks are high in number, as compared to number of complaints against new generation private banks in the State, according to M. Sebastian, Banking Ombudsman for Andhra Pradesh.

“This is because nationalised banks are high in number with a vast network, whereas private banks have confined their services to select urban areas,” he reasons out.

Mr. Sebastian, Chief General Manager with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has assumed the responsibility of Banking Ombudsman for Andhra Pradesh region four months ago. Throwing light on quick disposal of grievances, Mr. Sebastian says that in order to achieve the goal, he has been encouraging banks to conduct conciliation meetings with the complainants in each district. In a talk with The Hindu during his visit to the city to participate in one such meeting, Mr. Sebastian opined that all banks should have an internal ‘customer grievance redressal’ mechanism, which could help the banks to deliver better services to their customers.

“With the advent of new generation banks and foreign banks, customers have better choices now. As bankers are aware of the competition in the sector, they are not giving much scope to customers to have any grievances,” he observed.

Mandatory

Admitting that not many customers, particularly those from rural pockets, were aware of the Ombudsman system, Mr. Sebastian said that it had been made mandatory now for all banks to display prominently the name and address of the Ombudsman concerned in all their bank branches. The Ombudsman’s secretariat located on the premises of the RBI in Hyderabad would be addressing any grievance within two months from the date of receipt of the complaint.

“We accept all grievances with a good faith and we will not entertain false complaints. The Ombudsman himself will have to go through each and every grievance and monitor its redressal,” he said.

Except the RBI, primary urban cooperative banks and non-scheduled banks, all other banks come under the purview of the Ombudsman.

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