Banking & Consumer Affairs

RBI Ombudsman Report 2024: 32.81% Surge in Customer Complaints Raises Red Flags 🚨📉

India’s central bank has flagged an alarming rise in banking complaints, pointing toward deteriorating service quality across financial institutions. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recorded 934,355 customer grievances under the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme for FY 2023–24 — a 32.81% jump from the previous year.

🧾 What is the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme?

• Launched: November 12, 2021
• Scope: Banks, NBFCs, Payment System Participants, Credit Information Companies
• Purpose: Unified and tech-driven grievance redressal mechanism

📊 Complaints at a Glance

📍 Region-wise Complaint Density

Top 5 High-Complaint Zones (per lakh accounts):

• Chandigarh
• Delhi (NCT)
• Rajasthan
• Gujarat
• Uttarakhand

Lowest Complaint Zones:

• Mizoram
• Nagaland
• Ladakh
• Manipur
• Lakshadweep

➡️ Highlights growing disparity in banking service standards across Indian states.

🚨 Nature of Complaints

🔸 Interest malpractices – Interest charged from sanction date, not disbursement
🔸 Unauthorized charges
🔸 Fraudulent transactions
🔸 Issues with credit card rewards and merchant disputes

🛠️ Grievance Redressal Performance

• Total Resolved: 284,355
• Resolution Rate: 95.10%
• Maintainable Complaints: 67.83%
• Rejected (No Service Deficiency): 40.78%
• Resolution Methods: Conciliation, mediation, mutual settlement

🗃️ CRPC (Centralised Receipt & Processing Centre)

• Complaints Received: 766,957
• Surge: 🔺 +30.10%
• Most marked as: Non-maintainable
• Many customers skipped complaining to the concerned bank before approaching the RBI.

🧭 What This Signals

• ✅ High resolution rate shows the scheme’s efficiency.
• ❌ Yet, steep rise in complaints indicates slipping service standards and customer dissatisfaction.

🧠 The RBI may now tighten compliance monitoring and impose service-level obligations on financial entities.

📌 For India’s financial institutions, the message is clear: improve customer service or face regulatory scrutiny.