The Reserve Bank of India today proposed to put in place a framework on turn around time for resolution of customer complaints and compensation framework across all authorised payment systems. The new rules are set to be announced by the end of June 2019.
The RBI noted said that currently the time taken for resolving customer complaint varies across payment systems.
“In order to have prompt and efficient customer service in all the electronic payment systems, it is necessary to harmonise the Turn Around Time (TAT) of resolution of customer complaints and chargebacks, and to have a compensation framework in place for the benefit of customers," the RBI said.
For some payment systems the RBI has already issued guidelines prescribing compensation to be paid to customers for delay in resolving failed transactions.
Earlier this year, RBI introduced an ombudsman scheme for digital transactions to expeditious complaint redressal mechanism relating to deficiency in customer services in digital transactions conducted through non-bank entities regulated by RBI.
Complaints relating to digital transactions conducted through banks are handled under the Banking Ombudsman Scheme.
The RBI will also benchmark India’s payment systems with those prevalent globally. The finding will be published by the end of May.
Benchmarking India’s payments systems, the central bank noted, is necessary to gauge India’s progress against payment systems and instruments in major countries and give further impetus to the planned efforts for deepening the digitisation of payments.
“Efficient payment systems reduce the cost of exchanging goods and services and are indispensable to the functioning of financial markets. The past decade has witnessed several innovations in retail payments across the globe. A report containing the findings of such an exercise will be placed on the RBI website by the end of May 2019," it said.
