LAGATAR24 DESK
New Delhi, Oct 30: Amid the high rates of digital transaction frauds in the country, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das urged ombudsman to be “sensitive” and “judicious” in their approach while redressing grievances of customers.
Governor Das advised ombudsmen and regulated firms to first pinpoint the source of consumer complaints before taking the appropriate steps to address them at the RBI Ombudsmen’s annual meeting in Jodhpur, Rajasthan.
He sought a prompt and equitable response to client complaints.
The RBI governor expressed his concern over the continued existence of complaints in a number of specific areas, including misselling, a lack of price transparency, excessive service fees, extremely high penal rates, etc.
The Governor expressed concern regarding the complaints pertaining to traditional banking. He said that this calls for serious review of the working of the customer service and grievance redress mechanism in the regulated entities. The root cause of persistence of such grievances need to be analysed and necessary corrective measures undertaken, the Governor added.
He said that social media stories of using strong-arm tactics by some recovery agents overshadow the good work that is being done for customer protection, both by the regulated entities (Banks, NBFCs, etc.) and the Reserve Bank.
He stressed that root cause analysis and its outcome should drive necessary changes at the organisational level including the process and system changes, policy and technological upgradation and skill enhancement of the relevant personnel.
Complaints could provide a treasure trove of data on systems, processes and overall compliance, he said, adding that the findings can serve as invaluable inputs for the update of internal risk registers and mid-way correction.
