Banking Ombudsman Scheme
The Scheme was introduced in 2006 with the object of enabling resolution of complaints relating to certain services rendered by banks and to facilitate the satisfaction or settlement of such complaints.
- The Banking Ombudsman is a senior official in the rank of Chief General Manager or General Manager appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to redress customer complaints against deficiency in certain banking services.
- The tenure of a banking ombudsman is for a period not exceeding 3 years.
- The appeal lays before an appellate authority i.e. the Deputy Governor in charge of the Department of the Reserve Bank implementing the Scheme.
- The ombudsman is required to send an annual report to the RBI governor containing general review of the activities of his office during the preceding financial year and other information required by the central bank.
- Currently, twenty Banking Ombudsmen have been appointed with their offices located mostly in state capitals.
- All Scheduled Commercial Banks, Regional Rural Banks and Scheduled Primary Cooperative Banks are covered under the Scheme.
Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Financial Banking Companies (NBFC’s)
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In 2018, RBI introduced an Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC’s) to redress customer complaints against NBFCs for deficiency in certain services covered under the grounds of complaint specified under Clause 8 of the Scheme.
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As on date, four ombudsmen for NBFC’s have been appointed with their offices located at Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai.
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The NBFC’s which are authorized to accept deposits; have customer interface, with assets size of one billion rupees or above were initially covered under the scheme.
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In 2019, RBI extended ombudsman scheme to cover non-deposit taking NBFC’s having customer interface and asset size of Rs.100 crores (Rs.1 billion) and above as well.