The RBI-appointed Banking Ombudsman of the State has expressed concern over ‘certain weaknesses’ of the public sector banks that are making the ATM cards issued by them susceptible.
“The technology used in these ATM credit/debit cards is not advanced making them highly susceptible,” Ombudsman N. Krishna Mohan said. This was one reason as to why the complaints relating to the State Bank of India and its associates including SBI credit cards constituted the largest share (46.08 per cent) in the overall complaints registered with the Ombudsman during the previous year.
70 per cent complaints
Public sector banks as a class accounted for 70 per cent of the inflow of complaints. But, there is a silver lining in the segment which saw a decline in complaints from the metropolitan and urban centres of the State owing to increased levels of awareness as compared to the semi-urban and rural areas. Proportionately, there was an increase in the number of complaints from these semi-urban and rural areas.
Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, he said the ATM credit/debit card complaints formed the largest concentration followed by those relating to disbursement of the Central government pensions and operations in deposit accounts. The complaints pertaining to ATM credit/debit cards primarily related to disputes relating to failed ATM transactions, fraudulent POS transactions over Internet using debit card information, harassment in collection of credit card dues and non-implementation of settlement conveyed orally by collection agents.
Of the total grievances received, 4,112 had been closed in terms of various provisions of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2006. Of these, 794 were non-maintainable complaints comprising 18 per cent of the total inflow and a significant proportion (43.45 per cent) of maintainable complaints had been amicably resolved through mediation and conciliation. Awards were passed in favour of 63 customers with monetary implication to the tune of Rs.84 lakh, apart from interest.
He said the RBI could not determine whether a currency note was genuine or not. It was for the banks to register a complaint with the police.
