RBI received over 1.63L complaints against banks in 2018: RTI

Nagpur: Banking behemoth SBI leads the chart of number of complaints received against various banks from customers last year.
Of the over 1.63 lakh complaints received by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from January 1 to December 31, 2018, over 50,000 were against the SBI alone, reveals RTI reply by RBI’s central public information officer.

Along with leading banks, many city-based banks like Nagpur Nagrik and Shikshak Sahakari also featured in the list of over 200 institutions provided by the RBI.

All these complaints were received by 21 Lokpals in various parts of the country, who were appointed under the Banking Lokpal (Ombudsman) Scheme, 2006. The CPIO’s reply to queries by RTI activist Abhay Kolarkar mentioned that SBI leads the chart with 50,256 complaints, which is obvious considering its vast network of branches.

The complaints were basically related to default or delay in payment or collection of cheques and draft collection/issuance, violating RBI’s directives, levying of charges without prior notice, refusal to open savings accounts, non-disbursement or delay in pension, closure of accounts without notice, and delays in sanctioning/disbursement of loans.

In the list, SBI is followed by private banking giants like HDFC Bank with 12,832, ICICI Bank with 10,752 and Punjab National Bank (PNB) with 9,899. Even the newly opened IndiaPost Payments Bank also figured in the list with 35 complaints.

Apart from nationalized banks, a host of cooperative, private and even international banks, including HSBC, Emirates and Standard Chartered are included in the list provided by the top bank.

Citizens can lodge a complaint with ombudsmen, but only after raising the issue in writing with the concerned bank. It can be done by either writing to the ombudsman office or by visiting the RBI website, as per the bank officials.

(With inputs from Akash Jamthe)