Customer complaints against banks recorded 11.2 per cent growth during the financial year 2014-15 with 85,131 complaints were received during the year, the Reserve Bank of India said on Thursday.
The growth in number of complaints in the last financial year was less than 10 per cent to 76,573.
Complaints from rural and urban raises“The high-point of this report is that the proportion of complaints from rural and semi urban population has increased by 15.6 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively over the last year,” RBI Deputy Governor Mundra said in the foreword of the annual report of the banking ombudsman scheme.
Complaints relating to failure to meet commitments, non-observance of fair practices code, constituted the largest category of complaints with 29.2 per cent of complaints received, while card related complaints comprised 21.3 per cent of total complaints received.
“Offices of Banking Ombudsmen maintained a disposal rate of 96 per cent,” RBI said. About 70 per cent of the complaints were registered by customers from metro and urban centres. Complaints from urban centres saw a growth of 17 per cent. Rural and semi-urban areas constitutes 15.6 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.
SBI leads the listMaximum number of complaints were registered against State Bank of India – the country’s largest banks (23,178) during the previous financial year, followed by ICICI Bank (6,115) and HDFC Bank (5,568). For SBI, the ratio for complaints per 1,000 account (excluding credit/debit cards) was 0.06 while for ICICI Bank it was 0.09 and for HDFC Bank, it was 0.10.
“The introduction of Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) and the supplemented financial inclusion efforts of RBI have resulted in massive increase in customer base of banks. This will result in increasing number of complaints,” Mr. Mundra said.
